! 


THE  ADMIRAL'S  CARAVAN 


ADMIRAL,  MAKING  A  DESPERATE  ATTEMPT  TO  GET  A  VIEW  OF  HIS  LEGS 
THROUGH  TH8  8PT-GLA8S." 


THE 
ADMIRAL'S  CARAVAN 


BY 

CHARLES  E.  CARRYL 

AUTHOR  OF  "DAVY  AND  THE  GOBLIN" 


WITH   ILLUSTRATIONS   BY 

REGINALD   B.  BIRCH 


BOSTON  AND   NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON   MIFFLIN   COMPANY 

:£Iu-  rtiiirwiDr  pices  Cambridge 


COPYRIGHT,  1891,  1892, 1919,  AND  1920,  BY  THE  CENTUBY  Co. 
COPYRIGHT,  1920,  BY  CHARLES  E.  CARRYL 


~PZ8 


TO  CONSTANCE 


SWEET  CHATTEEBOX,  >T  is  THOU  THAT  HAST  BEGUILED 

MY  FANCY,  AS  IT  DKEW  THE  LITTLE  CHILD 

WHO  IN  THESE  PAGES  LIVES;   HER  GENTLE  WAYS 

ABE  BUT  THE  REFLEX  OF  THY  BOUND  OF  DAYS. 

THE  TRIP  OF  SYLLABLE  I  HELD  SO  DEAR, 

AND  ALL  THY  SMALL  REMARKS,  ARE  TREASURED  HERE — 

CHARMED  BY  THE  ALCHEMY  OF  LOVE  TO  STAY 

THE  WHILE  THY  BLISSFUL  CHILDHOOD  SLIPS  AWAY. 

KIND  LITTLE  HEART,  THAT  KNOWS  NO  SELFISH  THOUGHT, 

READ  HERE  THE  TALE  THAT  THOU,  THYSELF,  HAST  WROUGHT! 


691442 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTEE  I  PAGE 

DOROTHY  AND  THE  ADMIRAL 11 

CHAPTEE  n 
THE  FERRY  TO  NOWHERE 23 

CHAPTEE  III 

THE  CRUISE  OF  THE  SIDEBOARD 32 

CHAPTEE  IV 
TREE-TOP  COUNTRY 39 

CHAPTEE  V 
BOB  SCARLET'S  GARDEN 54 

CHAPTEE  VI 
IN  THE  TOY-SHOP    .          66 


CHAPTEE  VH 

THE  SONG  IN  THE  DELL 81 

CHAPTEE  VEH 
SOMETHING  ABOUT  THE  CAMEL 95 

CHAPTEE  IX 
THE  CAMEL'S  COMPLAINT 104 

CHAPTEE  X 
THE  SIZING  TOWER 112 

CHAPTEE  XI 

THE  DANCING  ANIMALS 120 

CHAPTER  xn 
THE  CARAVAN  COMES  HOME 129 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTBATIONS 

PAGE 

"THE  ADMIRAL,  MAKING  A  DESPERATE  ATTEMPT  TO  GET  A 
VIEW  OF  HIS  LEGS  THROUGH  HIS  SPY-GLASS"  .  FRONTISPIECE 

HEAD-PIECE  TO  CHAPTER  I 11 

THE  ADMIRAL 13 

THE  HIGHLANDER 14 

SIR  WALTER  EOSETTES 15 

"THE  ADMIRAL,  MAKING  A  DESPERATE  ATTEMPT  TO  GET  A 
VIEW  OF  HIS  LEGS  THROUGH  HIS  SPY-GLASS" 19 

"THE  ADMIRAL  SAT  UP  AND  GAZED  ABOUT  WITH  A  COMPLA- 
CENT  SMILE " 21 

"'THEY'RE  ENTIRELY  DIFFERENT  FROM  MINE,  ANYHOW,'  SAID 
THE  STORK  " 25 

"IT    SEEMED    LIKE    LISTENING   TO    AN    ENORMOUS   CUCKOO- 
CLOCK"    26 

"'DEAR  ME!'  SHE  EXCLAIMED,  'HERE  COMES  ALL  THE  FUR- 
NITURE ! '" 30 

"THE  ADMIRAL  EXCLAIMED:    'THERE  SHE  is!  I  CAN  SEE 

HER  QUITE    PLAINLY  ! ' " ' 34 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

"THE   SIDEBOARD   SLOWLY  FLOATED  ALONG  THROUGH  THIS 
STRANGE  FOREST" 40 

DOROTHY  MAKES  A  CALL  IN  THE  TREE-TOP  COUNTRY  ...    43 
THE  EXTRAORDINARY  POST-CAPTAIN 47  and  48 

"  HE  DID  A  LITTLE   FIFING   ON   THE  EDGES   OF  THE  NOTE"  .     .      49 

"SiR  PETER  CAUGHT  THE  PIRATE,  AND   HE  TOOK  HIM  BY 
THE  NECK" 51 

"HE  WAS  WALKING  ABOUT  WITH  HIS  HANDS  IN  HIS  WAIST- 
COAT-POCKETS " 55 

"  THERE  WERE  PLANTS  LOADED  DOWN  WITH  LITTLE  PINAFORES, 
AND   SHRUBS  WITH   SMALL  SHOES   GROWING   ALL  OVER 

THEM  " 57 

"'WHY,  THE  PLACE  WHERE  I  AM,'  SAID  DOROTHY "  ....    62 

"DOROTHY  STARTED  OFF  AT  ONCE,  AS  FAST  AS  SHE  COULD 
RUN" 64 

"'!T  is  A  SHELF!'  SHE  EXCLAIMED" 67 

"THE  HIGHLANDER,  WITH  HIS  USUAL  BAD  LUCK,  HAD  PUT 
ON  HIS  SUNBONNET  BACKWARD" 68 

"'YOU  KNOW  YOUR  SIZE  DOES  COME  IN  DOZENS,  ASSORTED,' 
CONTINUED  THE  JACK" 75 

"HE  SAILED  AWAY  UNDER  THE  BRIDGE" 80 

"SHE  FOUND  IT  RATHER  TRYING  TO  HER  NERVES,  AT  FIRST, 
TO  MEET  WITH  RABBITS  AS  BIG  AS  HORSES  " 86 

" — To  BE  CHATTERED  AT  BY  SQUIRRELS  A  HEAD  TALLER 
THAN  SHE  HERSELF  WAS"  .  87 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

"PUSHING   THE    LEAVES    GENTLY    ASIDE,    SHE    CAUTIOUSLY 
PEEPED  OUT  " 91 

THE  MOUSE  LAMENTS 93 

"AND  FOUND  THE  CAKAVAN  SITTING  IN  A  BOW  ON  A  LITTLE 
BENCH  AT  THE  DOOE" 96 

"HE  DKOPPED  HIS  LITTLE  BOOK,  WITH  AN  APPEAKANCE  OF 
GEEAT  AGITATION,  AND  HUBEIED  AWAY" 101 

"A  DOOE  AT  THE  BACK  OF  THE  SHOP  OPENED  AND  THEY  ATT. 

EUSHED  OUT" 102 

TAIL-PIECE  TO  CHAPTEE  VIII 103 

THE  CAEAVAN  DISCIPLINE  THE  CAMEL 109 

" '  THEEE  is  N'T  ANY  MOEE,'  SAID  THE  HIGHLANDEE,  EATHEE 
CONFUSEDLY" 115 

"AN  ELEPHANT  AND  A  SHEEP  SEIZED  HEE  BY  THE  HANDS, 
AND   THE   NEXT   MOMENT   SHE   WAS   DANCING   IN   THE 

EING" 123 

THE   ANIMALS    CEOSSING   OVEE 127 

"BY    THIS    TIME    THEY    WEEE    EUNNING    SO    FAST    THAT    SHE 

COULD    HAEDLY    KEEP    UP  WITH    THEM" 135 

"  IT  SLOWLY  CHANGED  TO  A  BIED-CAGE  WITH  A  EOBIN  SITTING 

IN   IT" 138 

TAIL-PIECE  TO  CHAPTEE  XII 140 


CHAPTER  I 

DOBOTHY  AND  THE  ADMIRAL 

THE  Blue  Admiral  Inn  stood  on  the  edge  of  the 
shore,  with  its  red  brick  walls,  and  its  gabled  roof, 
and  the  old  willow-trees  that  overhung  it,  all  reflected 
in  the  quiet  water  as  if  the  harbor  had  been  a  great 
mirror  lying  upon  its  back  in  the  sun.  This  made  it 
a  most  attractive  place  to  look  at.  Then  there  were 
crisp  little  dimity  curtains  hanging  in  the  windows  of 


12  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

the  coffee-room  and  giving  great  promise  of  tidiness 
and  comfort  within,  and  this  made  it  a  most  delightful 
place  to  think  about.  And  then  there  was  a  certain 
suggestion  of  savory  cooking  in  the  swirl  of  the  smoke 
that  came  out  of  the  tall,  old-fashioned  chimneys,  and 
this  made  it  a  most  difficult  place  to  stay  away  from. 
In  fact,  if  any  ships  had  chanced  to  come  into  the 
little  harbor,  I  believe  everybody  on  board  of  them, 
from  the  captains  down  to  the  cabin-boys,  would  have 
scrambled  into  the  boats  the  moment  the  anchors  were 
down  and  pulled  away  for  the  Blue  Admiral  Inn. 

But,  so  far  as  ships  were  concerned,  the  harbor  was 
as  dead  as  a  door-nail,  and  poor  old  Uncle  Porticle,  who 
kept  the  inn,  had  long  ago  given  up  all  idea  of  expect- 
ing them,  and  had  fallen  into  a  melancholy  habit  of 
standing  in  the  little  porch  that  opened  on  the  village 
street,  gazing  first  to  the  right  and  then  to  the  left, 
and  lastly  at  the  opposite  side  of  the  way,  as  if  he  had 
a  fault  hope  that  certain  seafaring  men  were  about  to 
steal  a  march  upon  him  from  the  land-side  of  the  town. 
And  Dorothy,  who  was  a  lonely  little  child,  with  no 
one  in  the  world  to  care  for  but  Uncle  Porticle,  had 
also  fallen  into  a  habit  of  sitting  on  the  step  of  the 
porch  by  way  of  keeping  him  company;  and  here 


DOROTHY   AND    THE    ADMIRAL 


13 


they  passed  many  quiet  hours  together,  with  the  big 
robin  hopping  about  in  his  cage,  and  with  the  Admiral 
himself,  on  his  pedestal  beside  the  porch,  keeping  watch 
and  ward  over  the  fortunes  of  the  inn. 

Now  the  Admiral  was  only 
a  yard  high,  and  was  made  of 
wood  into  the  bargain;  but  he 
was  a  fine  figure  of  a  man  for 
all  that,  being  dressed  in  a 
very  beautiful  blue  coat  (as 
befitted  his  name)  and  ca- 
nary-colored knee-breeches,and 
wearing  a  fore-and-aft  hat 
rakishly  perched  on  the  back 
of  his  head.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  had  sundry  stray 
cracks  in  the  calves  of  his 
legs,  and  was  badly  battered 
about  the  nose;  but,  after  all, 
this  only  gave  him  a  certain 
weather-beaten  appearance  as 
if  he  had  been  around  the 
world  any  number  of  times 
in  all  sorts  of  company;  and 


14 


THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 


for  as  long  as  Dorothy  could  remember  he  had  been 
standing  on  his  pedestal  beside  the  porch,  enjoying 
the  sunshine  and  defying  the  rain,  as  a  gallant  officer 

should,    and    earnestly    gazing    at    the 

./ 

opposite  side  of  the  street  through  a 
spy-glass. 

Now,  what  the  Admiral  was  star- 
ing at  was  a  mystery.  He  might,  for 
instance,  have  been  looking  at  the 
wooden  Highlander  that  stood  at  the 
door  of  Mr.  Pendle's  instrument-shop, 
for  nothing  more  magnificent  than  this 
particular  Highlander  could  possibly 
be  imagined.  His  clothes  were  of 
every  color  of  the  rainbow,  and  he 
had  silver  buckles  on  his  shoes,  and 
brass  buttons  on  his  coat,  and  he  was 
varnished  to  such  an  extent  that  you 
could  hardly  look  at  him  without 
winking.  Then  his  hair  and  his  whiskers  were  so  red, 
and  his  legs  were  so  pink  and  so  fat  and  so  lifelike,  that 
it  seemed  as  if  you  could  almost  hear  him  speak ;  and, 
what  was  more,  he  had  been  standing  for  years  at  the 
door  of  the  shop,  proudly  holding  up  a  preposterous 


THE  HIGHLANDER. 


DOROTHY   AND    THE   ADMIRAL 


15 


wooden  watch  that  gave  half-past  three  as  the  correct 
time  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night.  In  fact,  it 
would  have  been  no  great  wonder  if  the  Admiral  had 
stared  at  him  to  the  end  of  his  days. 

Then  there  was  Sir  Walter  Rosettes,  a  long-bodied 
little  man  in  a  cavalier's 
cloak,  with  a  ruff  about  his 
neck  and  enormous  rosettes 
on  his  shoes,  who  stood 
on  a  pedestal  at  old  Mrs. 
Peevy's  garden  gate,  offer- 
ing an  imitation  tobacco- 
plant,  free  of  charge,  as 
it  were,  to  any  one  who 
would  take  the  trouble  of 
carrying  it  home.  This  bold 
device  was  intended  to  call 
attention  to  the  fact  that 
Mrs.  Peevy  kept  a  tobacco-shop  in  the  front  parlor  of 
her  little  cottage  behind  the  hollyhock  bushes,  the 
announcement  being  backed  up  by  the  spectacle  of 
three  pipes  arranged  in  a  tripod  in  the  window,  and 
by  the  words  "  Smokers'  Emporium "  displayed  in  gold 
letters  on  the  glass;  and,  by  the  way,  Dorothy  knew 


SIR  WALTER  RO8ETTE8. 


16  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

perfectly  well  who  this  little  man  was,  as  somebody 
had  taken  the  trouble  of  writing  his  name  with  a  lead- 
pencil  on  his  pedestal  just  below  the  toes  of  his  shoes. 

And  lastly  there  was  old  Mrs.  Peevy  herself,  who 
might  be  seen  at  any  hour  of  the  day,  sitting  at  the 
door  of  her  cottage,  fast  asleep  in  the  shade  of  her  big 
cotton  umbrella  with  the  Chinese  mandarin  for  a  han- 
dle. She  was  n't  much  to  look  at,  perhaps,  but  there 
was  no  way  of  getting  at  the  Admiral's  taste  in  such 
matters,  so  he  stared  through  his  spy-glass  year  in  and 
year  out,  and  nobody  was  any  the  wiser. 

Now  from  sitting  so  much  in  the  porch  and  turning 
these  things  over  in  her  mind,  Dorothy  had  come  to 
know  the  Admiral  and  the  Highlander  and  Sir  Walter 
Rosettes  as  well  as  she  could  possibly  know  persons 
who  did  n't  know  her,  and  who  could  n't  have  spoken 
to  her  if  they  had  known  her ;  but  nothing  came  of  the 
acquaintance  until  a  certain  Christmas  eve.  Of  course, 
nobody  knew  better  than  Dorothy  what  Christmas  eve 
should  be  like.  The  snow  should  be  falling  softly,  and 
just  enough  should  come  down  to  cover  up  the  pave- 
ments and  make  the  streets  look  beautifully  white  and 
clean,  and  to  edge  the  trees  and  the  lamp-posts  and 
the  railings  as  if  they  were  trimmed  with  soft  lace; 


DOROTHY  AND    THE    ADMIRAL  17 

and  just  enough  to  tempt  children  to  come  out,  and 
not  so  much  as  to  keep  grown  people  at  home — in  fact, 
just  enough  for  Christmas  eve,  and  not  a  bit  more. 

Then  the  streets  should  he  full  of  people  hurrying 
along  and  all  carrying  plenty  of  parcels;  and  the  win- 
dows should  he  very  gay  with  delightful  wreaths  of 
greens,  and  hunches  of  holly  with  plenty  of  scarlet  ber- 
ries on  them,  and  the  greengrocers  should  have  little 
forests  of  assorted  hemlock-trees  on  the  sidewalks  in 
front  of  their  shops,  and  everything  should  be  as  cheer- 
ful and  as  bustling  as  possible. 

And,  if  you  liked,  there  might  be  just  a  faint  smell 
of  cooking  floating  about  in  the  air,  but  this  was  not 
important  by  any  means,  as  it  might  happen  at  any 
time. 

Well,  all  these  good  old-fashioned  things  came  to  pass 
on  this  particular  Christmas  eve  except  the  snow;  and 
in  place  of  that  there  came  a  soft,  warm  rain  which 
was  all  very  well  in  its  way,  except  that,  as  Dorothy 
said,  "It  did  n't  belong  on  Christmas  eve."  And  just 
at  nightfall  she  went  out  into  the  porch  to  smell  the 
rain,  and  to  see  how  Christmas  matters  generally  were 
getting  on  in  the  wet ;  and  she  was  watching  the  people 
hurrying  by,  and  trying  to  fancy  what  was  in  the  mys- 


18  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

terious-looking  parcels  they  were  carrying  so  carefully 
under  their  umbrellas,  when  she  suddenly  noticed  that 
the  toes  of  the  Admiral's  shoes  were  turned  sideways 
on  his  pedestal,  and  looking  up  at  him  she  saw  that 
he  had  tucked  his  spy-glass  under  his  arm,  and  was 
gazing  down  backward  at  his  legs  with  an  air  of  great 
concern. 

This  was  so  startling  that  Dorothy  almost  jumped 
out  of  her  shoes,  and  she  was  just  turning  to  run  back 
into  the  house  when  the  Admiral  caught  sight  of  her, 
and  called  out  excitedly,  "Cracks  in  my  legs!" — and 
then  stared  hard  at  her  as  if  demanding  some  sort  of 
an  explanation  of  this  extraordinary  state  of  affairs. 

Dorothy  was  dreadfully  frightened,  but  she  was  a 
very  polite  little  girl,  and  would  have  answered  the 
town  pump  if  it  had  spoken  to  her;  so  she  swallowed 
down  a  great  lump  that  had  come  up  into  her  throat, 
and  said,  as  respectfully  as  she  could,  "  I  'm  very  sorry, 
sir.  I  suppose  it  must  be  because  they  are  so  very 
old." 

"Old!"  exclaimed  the  Admiral,  making  a  desperate 
attempt  to  get  a  view  of  his  legs  through  his  spy-glass. 
"  Why,  they  're  no  older  than  /  am  " ;  and,  upon  think- 
ing it  over,  this  seemed  so  very  true  that  Dorothy  felt 


DOROTHY   AND    THE   ADMIRAL 


19 


quite  ashamed  of  her 
remark  and  stood 
looking  at  him  in  a 
rather  foolish  way. 

"Try  again,"  said 
the  Admiral,  with  a 
patronizing  air. 

"  No,"  said  Doro- 
thy, gravely  shaking 
her  head,  "  I  'm  sure 
I  don't  know  any 
other  reason;  only  it 
seems  rather  strange, 
you  know, that  you've 
never  even  seen  them 
before." 

"If  you  mean  my 
legs,"  said  the  Ad- 
miral, "of  course  I  Ve 
seen  them  before — 

lots  of  times.  But  I  Ve  never  seen  'em  behind.  That 
is,"  he  added  by  way  of  explanation.  "I  Ve  never  seen 
'em  behind  before." 

"  But  I  mean  the  cracks,"  said  Dorothy,  with  a  faint 


"  THE  ADMIRAL,  MAKING  A  DESPERATE  ATTEMPT  TO 
GET  A  VIEW  OF  HIS  LEGS  THROUGH  HIS  SPY-GLASS." 


20  THE    ADMIRAL'S  CARAVAN 

smile.  You  see  she  was  beginning  to  feel  a  little  ac- 
quainted with  the  Admiral  by  this  time,  and  the  con- 
versation did  n't  seem  to  be  quite  so  solemn  as  it  had 
been  when  he  first  began  talking. 

"  Then  you  should  say  'seen  'em  before  behind,1"  said 
the  Admiral.  "  That  's  where  they  Ve  always  been,  you 
know." 

Dorothy  did  n't  know  exactly  what  reply  to  make  to 
this  remark;  but  she  thought  she  ought  to  say  some- 
thing by  way  of  helping  along  the  conversation,  so  she 

began,  "I  suppose  it  's  kind  of  "  and  here  she 

stopped  to  think  of  the  word  she  wanted. 

"Kind  of  what?"  said  the  Admiral  severely. 

"Kind  of — cripplesome,  is  n't  if?"  said  Dorothy 
rather  confusedly. 

"Cripplesome?"  exclaimed  the  Admiral.  "Why, 
that  's  no  word  for  it.  It  's  positively  decrepitoo- 
dle "  here  he  paused  for  a  moment  and  got  ex- 
tremely red  in  the  face,  and  then  finished  up  with 

" loodelarious,"  and  stared  hard  at  her  again,  as  if 

inquiring  what  she  thought  of  that. 

"  Goodness ! "  said  Dorothy,  drawing  a  long  breath, 
"what  a  word!" 

"Well,  it  is  rather  a  word,"  said  the  Admiral  with  a 


DOROTHY   AND    THE    ADMIRAL 


21 


very  satisfied  air.    "You  see,  it  means  about  everything 

that  can  happen  to  a  person's  legs "  but  just  here 

his  remarks  came  abruptly  to  an  end,  for  as  he  was 
strutting  about  on  his  pedestal,  he  suddenly  slipped  off 
the  edge  of  it  and  came  to  the  ground  flat  on  his  back. 
Dorothy  gave  a  little  scream  of  dismay;  but  the  Ad- 
miral, who  did  n't  appear  to  be  in  the  least  disturbed 
by  this  accident,  sat 
up  and  gazed  about 
with  a  complacent 
smile.  Then,  getting 
on  his  feet,  he  took 
a  pipe  out  of  his 
pocket,  and  lit  it 
with  infinite  relish; 
and  having  turned  up 
his  coat-collar  by  way 
of  keeping  the  rest  ^ 
of  his  clothes  dry, 

"  THE  ADMIRAL  SAT  UP  AND  GAZED  ABOUT  WITH  A 

he     Started    Off    down  COMPLACENT  SMILE." 

the     street     without 

another  word.  The  people  going  by  had  all  disap- 
peared in  the  most  unaccountable  manner,  and  Dor- 
othy could  see  him  quite  plainly  as  he  walked  along, 


22  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

tacking  from  one  side  of  the  street  to  the  other  with 
a  strange  rattling  noise,  and  blowing  little  puffs  of 
smoke  into  the  air  like  a  shabby  little  steam-tug  going 
to  sea  in  a  storm. 

Now  all  this  was  extremely  exciting,  and  Dorothy, 
quite  forgetting  the  rain,  ran  down  the  street  a  little 
way  so  as  to  keep  the  Admiral  in  sight.  "It  's  pre- 
cisely like  a  doll  going  traveling  all  by  itself,"  she 
exclaimed  as  she  ran  along.  "  How  he  rattles !  I  sup- 
pose that  's  his  little  cracked  legs — and  goodness  gra- 
cious, how  he  smokes ! "  she  added,  for  by  this  time 
the  Admiral  had  fired  up,  so  to  speak,  as  if  he  were 
bound  on  a  long  journey,  and  was  blowing  out  such 
clouds  of  smoke  that  he  presently  quite  shut  himself 
out  from  view.  The  smoke  smelt  somewhat  like  burnt 
feathers,  which,  of  course,  was  not  very  agreeable,  but 
the  worst  of  it  was  that  when  Dorothy  turned  to  run 
home  again  she  discovered  that  she  could  n't  see  her 
way  back  to  the  porch,  and  she  was  feeling  about  for 
it  with  her  hands  stretched  out,  when  the  smoke  sud- 
denly cleared  away  and  she  found  that  the  inn,  and  Mr. 
Pendle's  shop,  and  Mrs.  Peevy's  cottage  had  all  disap- 
peared like  a  street  in  a  pantomime,  and  that  she  was 
standing  quite  alone  before  a  strange  little  stone  house. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   FEKRY   TO    NOWHEBE 

THE  rain  had  stopped,  and  the  moon  was  shining 
through  the  breaking  clouds,  and  as  Dorothy  looked  up 
at  the  little  stone  house  she  saw  that  it  had  an  arch- 
way through  it  with  "FEBBY"  in  large  letters  on  the 
wall  above  it.  Of  course  she  had  no  idea  of  going  by 
herself  over  a  strange  ferry;  but  she  was  an  extremely 
curious  little  girl,  as  you  will  presently  see,  and  so  she 
immediately  ran  through  the  archway  to  see  what  the 
ferry  was  like  and  where  it  took  people,  but,  to  her 
surprise,  instead  of  coming  out  at  the  water  side,  she 
came  into  a  strange,  old-fashioned-looking  street  as 
crooked  as  it  could  possibly  be,  and  lined  on  both  sides 
by  tall  houses  with  sharply  peaked  roofs  looming  up 
against  the  evening  sky. 

There  was  no  one  in  sight  but  a  stork.  He  was  a 
very  tall  stork  with  red  legs,  and  wore  a  sort  of  paper 
bag  on  his  head  with  "  FEBBYMAN  "  written  across  the 
front  of  it;  and  as  Dorothy  appeared  he  held  out  one 


24  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

of  his  claws  and  said,  "  Fare,  please,"  in  quite  a  matter- 
of-fact  way. 

Dorothy  was  positively  certain  that  she  had  n't  any 
money,  but  she  put  her  hand  into  the  pocket  of  her 
apron,  partly  for  the  sake  of  appearances,  and  partly 
because  she  was  a  little  afraid  of  the  Stork,  and,  to  her 
surprise,  pulled  out  a  large  cake.  It  was  nearly  as  big 
as  a  saucer,  and  was  marked  "ONE  BISKEB";  and  as 
this  seemed  to  show  that  it  had  some  value,  she  handed 
it  to  the  ferryman.  The  Stork  turned  it  over  several 
times  rather  suspiciously,  and  then,  taking  a  large  bite 
out  of  it,  remarked,  "Very  good  fare,"  and  dropped 
the  rest  of  it  into  a  little  hole  in  the  wall;  and  hav- 
ing done  this  he  stared  gravely  at  Dorothy  for  a  mo- 
ment, and  then  said,  "  What  makes  your  legs  bend  the 
wrong  way?" 

"Why,  they  don't!"  said  Dorothy,  looking  down  at 
them  to  see  if  anything  had  happened  to  them. 

"  They  're  entirely  different  from  mine,  anyhow,"  said 
the  Stork. 

"  But,  you  know,"  said  Dorothy  very  earnestly,  "  I 
could  n't  sit  down  if  they  bent  the  other  way." 

"  Sitting  down  is  all  very  well,"  said  the  Stork,  with 
a  solemn  shake  of  his  head,  "but  you  could  n't  collect 


IRE    FEREY    TO    NOWHERE 


25 


fares  with  'em,  to  save  your  life,"  and  with  this  he  went 
into  the  house  and  shut  the  door. 

"  It  seems  to  me  this  is  a  very  strange  adventure," 
said  Dorothy  to  herself.  "  It  appears  to  be  most- 
ly about  people's 
legs,"  and  she  was 
gazing  down  again 
in  a  puzzled  way 
at  her  little  black 
stockings  when  she 
heard  a  cough,  and 
looking  up  she  saw 
that  the  Stork  had 
his  head  out  of  a 
small  round  win- 
dow in  the  wall  of 
the  house. 


"  Look  here,"  he 


'THEY  'RK    ENTIRELY    DIFFERENT    FROM    MINE, 
ANYHOW,'    SAID    THE    STORK." 


said  confidentially, 

"I  forgot  to  ask  what  your  fare  was  for."  He 
said  this  in  a  sort  of  husky  whisper,  and  as  Dorothy 
looked  up  at  him  it  seemed  something  like  listen- 
ing to  an  enormous  cuckoo-clock  with  a  bad  cold  in 
its  works. 


26 


THE   ADMIRAL'S    CAR  A  VAX 


"IT   SEEMED    LIKE    LISTENING    TO    AN    ENOKMOC8    CUCKOO-CLOCK." 

"I  don't  think  I  know  exactly  what  it  was  for,"  she 
said,  rather  confusedly. 

"Well,  it  's  got  to  he  for  something,  you  know,  or  it 
won't  be  fair,"  said  the  Stork.  "I  suppose  you  don't 


THE   FERRY    TO    NOWHERE  27 

want  to  go  over  the  ferry?"  he  added,  cocking  his 
head  on  one  side,  and  looking  down  at  her,  inquiringly. 

"  Oh,  no  indeed ! "  said  Dorothy,  very  earnestly. 

"  That  's  lucky,"  said  the  Stork.  "  It  does  n't  go  any- 
where that  it  ever  gets  to.  Perhaps  you  'd  like  to  hear 
about  it.  It  's  in  poetry,  you  know." 

"  Thank  you,"  said  Dorothy  politely.  "I  'd  like  it  very 
much." 

"All  right,"  said  the  Stork.  "The  werses  is  called 
'A  Ferry  Tale'";  and,  giving  another  cough  to  clear 
his  voice,  he  began : 

Oh,  come  and  cross  over  to  nowhere, 

And  go  where 

The  nobodies  live  on  their  nothing  a  day  I 
A  tideful  of  tricks  is  this  merry 

Old  Ferry, 
And  these  are  the  things  that  it  does  by  the  way: 

It  pours  into  parks  and  disperses 

The  nurses; 

It  goes  into  gardens  and  scatters  the  cats; 
It  leaks  into  lodgings,  disorders 

The  boarders, 
And  washes  away  with  their  holiday  hats. 


28  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

It  soaks  into  shops,  and  inspires 

The  buyers 

To  crawl  over  counters  and  climb  upon  chairs; 
It  trickles  on  tailors,  it  spatters 

On  hatters, 
And  makes  little  milliners  scamper  up-stairs. 

It  goes  out  of  town  and  it  rambles 

Through  brambles; 

It  wallows  in  hollows  and  dives  into  dells; 
It  flows  into  farm-yards  and  sickens 

The  chickens, 
And  washes  the  wheelbarrows  into  the  wells. 

It  turns  into  taverns  and  drenches 

The  benches; 

It  jumps  into  pumps  and  comes  out  with  a  roar ; 
It  pounds  like  a  postman  at  lodges  — 

Then  dodges 
And  runs  up  the  lane  when  they  open  the  door. 

It  leaks  into  laundries  and  wrangles 

With  mangles; 

It  trips  over  turnips  and  tumbles  down-hill: 
It  rolls  like  a  coach  along  highways 

And  byways, 
But  never  gets  anywhere,  go  as  it  will! 


THE    FERRY    TO   NOWHERE  29 

Oh,  foolish  old  Ferry  !  all  muddles 

And  puddles  — 

Go  fribble  and  dribble  along  on  your  way ; 
We  drink  to  your  health  with  molasses 

In  glasses, 
And  waft  you  farewell  with  a  handful  of  hay  ! 

"What  do  you  make  out  of  it?"  inquired  the  Stork 
anxiously. 

"I  don't  make  anything  out  of  it,"  said  Dorothy, 
staring  at  him  in  great  perplexity. 

"I  did  n't  suppose  you  would,"  said  the  Stork,  ap- 
parently veiy  much  relieved.  "I  Ve  been  at  it  for  years 
and  years,  and  I  Ve  never  made  sixpence  out  of  it 
yet,"  with  which  remark  he  pulled  in  his  head  and 
disappeared. 

"  I  don't  know  what  he  means,  I  'm  sure,"  said  Doro- 
thy, after  waiting  a  moment  to  see  if  the  Stork  would 
come  back,  "but  I  would  n't  go  over  that  ferry  for 
sixty  sixpences.  It  's  altogether  too  frolicky";  and 
having  made  this  wise  resolution,  she  was  just  turning 
to  go  back  through  the  archway  when  the  door  of  the 
house  flew  open  and  a  little  stream  of  water  ran  out 
upon  the  pavement.  This  was  immediately  followed  by 
another  and  much  larger  flow,  and  the  next  moment 


30 


THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 


the  water  came  pouring  out  through  the  doorway  in 
such  a  torrent  that  she  had  just  time  to  scramble  up 
on  the  window-ledge  before  the  street  was  completely 
flooded. 

Dorothy's  first  idea  was  that  there  was  something 
wrong  with  the  pipes,  but  as  she  peeped  in  curiously 
through  the  window  she  was  astonished  to  see  that  it 


'DRAB    MB'.'    SHE    EXCLAIMKD,    '  HKKE    COMES    ALL    THE    FITKNITURK  !  ' 


THE    FERRY   TO   NOWHERE  31 

was  raining  hard  inside  the  house — "and  dear  me!" 
she  exclaimed,  "  here  comes  all  the  furniture ! "  and, 
sure  enough,  the  next  moment  a  lot  of  old-fashioned 
furniture  came  floating  out  of  the  house  and  drifted 
away  down  the  street.  There  was  a  corner  cupboard 
full  of  crockery,  and  two  spinning-wheels,  and  a  spin- 
dle-legged table  set  out  with  a  blue-and-white  tea-set 
and  some  cups  and  saucers,  and  finally  a  carved  side- 
board which  made  two  or  three  clumsy  attempts  to 
get  through  the  doorway  broadside  on,  and  then  took 
a  fresh  start,  and  came  through  endwise  with  a  great 
flourish.  All  of  these  things  made  quite  a  little  fleet, 
and  the  effect  was  very  imposing;  but  by  this  time 
the  water  was  quite  up  to  the  window-ledge,  and  as 
the  sideboard  was  a  fatherly-looking  piece  of  furni- 
ture with  plenty  of  room  to  move  about  in,  Dorothy 
stepped  aboard  of  it  as  it  went  by,  and,  sitting  down 
on  a  little  shelf  that  ran  along  the  back  of  it,  sailed 
away  in  the  wake  of  the  tea-table. 


CHAPTER  m 

THE   CRUISE   OF   THE   SIDEBOARD 

THE  sideboard  behaved  in  the  most  absurd  manner, 
spinning  around  and  around  in  the  water,  and  banging 
about  among  the  other  furniture  as  if  it  had  never 
been  at  sea  before,  and  finally  bringing  up  against  the 
tea-table  with  a  crash  in  the  stupidest  way  imaginable, 
and  knocking  the  tea-set  and  all  the  cups  and  saucers 
into  the  water.  Dorothy  felt  very  ridiculous  as  you 
may  suppose,  and,  to  add  to  her  mortification,  the  Stork 
ferryman  suddenly  reappeared,  and  she  could  see  him 
running  along  the  roofs  of  the  houses,  and  now  and 
then  stopping  to  stare  down  at  her  from  the  eaves  as 
she  sailed  by,  as  if  she  were  the  most  extraordinary 
spectacle  he  had  ever  seen,  as  indeed  she  probably 
was.  Sometimes  he  waited  until  the  sideboard  had 
floated  some  distance  past  him  as  if  to  see  how  it 
looked,  gazed  at  from  behind;  and  then  Dorothy  would 
catch  sight  of  him  again  far  ahead,  peering  out  from 
behind  a  chimney,  as  if  to  get  a  front  view  of  the  per- 


THE    CRUISE    OF    THE    SIDEBOARD  33 

formance.  All  this  was,  of  course,  very  impertinent, 
and  although  Dorothy  was  naturally  a  very  kind- 
hearted  little  child,  she  was  really  quite  gratified  when 
the  Stork  finally  made  an  attempt  to  get  a  new  view 
of  her  from  the  top  of  an  unusually  tall  chimney,  and 
fell  down  into  it  with  a  loud  screech  of  dismay. 

Presently  the  street  ended  at  a  great  open  space 
where  the  water  spread  out  in  every  direction,  like  a 
lake.  The  day  seemed  to  be  breaking,  and  it  was 
quite  light;  and  as  the  sideboard  sailed  out  into  the 
open  water,  Dorothy  caught  sight  of  something  like  a 
fat-looking  boat,  floating  at  a  little  distance  and  slowly 
drifting  toward  her.  As  it  came  nearer  it  proved  to 
be  Mrs.  Peevy's  big  umbrella  upside  down,  with  a  little 
party  of  people  sitting  around  on  the  edge  of  it  with 
their  feet  against  the  handle,  and,  to  Dorothy's  amaze- 
ment, she  knew  every  one  of  them.  There  was  the 
Admiral,  staring  about  with  his  spy-glass,  and  Sir  Wal- 
ter Kosettes,  carefully  carrying  his  tobacco-plant  as  if 
it  were  a  nosegay,  and  the  Highlander,  with  his  big 
watch  dangling  in  the  water  over  the  side  of  the  um- 
brella; and  last,  there  was  the  little  Chinese  mandarin 
clinging  convulsively  to  the  top  of  the  handle  as  if  he 
were  keeping  a  lookout  from  the  masthead. 


34 


THE    ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 


The  sideboard  brought  up  against  the  edge  of  the 
umbrella  with  a  soft  little  bump,  and  the  Admiral, 
hurriedly  pointing  his  spy-glass  at  Dorothy  so  that 
the  end  of  it  almost  touched  her  nose,  exclaimed  ex- 


••iiii.  ADMIRAL  EXCLAIMED:  'THEKK  SHE  is!    i  CAN  -i  i    HKR  gems  PLAINLY!" 


citedly,  "  There  she  is !     I  can  see  her  quite  plainly," 
and  the  whole  party  gave  an  exultant  shout. 

"  How  are  you  getting  on  now  ¥ "  inquired  Sir  Wal- 
ter, as  if  he  had  had  her  under  close  observation  for  a 
week  at  least. 


THE    CRUISE    OF    THE    SIDEBOARD  35 

"I  'm  getting  on  pretty  well,"  said  Dorothy,  mourn, 
fully.  "I  believe  I  'm  crossing  a  ferry." 

"  So  are  we,"  said  the  Admiral,  cheerfully.  "  We  're 
a  Caravan,  you  know." 

"A  Caravan?"  exclaimed  Dorothy,  very  much  sur- 
prised. 

"  I  believe  I  said  '  Caravan '  quite  distinctly,"  said 
the  Admiral  in  an  injured  tone,  appealing  to  the  rest 
of  the  party;  but  no  one  said  anything  except  the 
Highlander,  who  hastily  consulted  his  watch  and  then 
exclaimed  "Hurrah!"  rather  doubtfully. 

"I  understood  what  you  said,"  explained  Dorothy, 
"but  I  don't  think  I  know  exactly  what  you  mean." 

"  Never  mind  what  he  means,"  shouted  Sir  Walter. 
"  TJiat  *s  of  no  consequence." 

"No  consequence!"  exclaimed  the  Admiral,  flaring 
up.  "Why,  I  mean  more  in  a  minute  than  you  do  in 
a  week!" 

"You  say  more  in  a  minute  than  anybody  could 
mean  in  a  month,"  retorted  Sir  Walter,  flourishing  his 
tobacco-plant. 

" J  can  talk  a  year  without  meaning  anything"  said 
the  Highlander,  proudly ;  but  no  one  took  any  notice  of 
this  remark,  which,  of  course,  served  him  right. 


36  THE   ADMIRAL'S   CARAVAN 

The  Admiral  stared  at  Sir  Walter  for  a  moment 
through  his  spy-glass,  and  then  said  veiy  firmly, 
uYou  're  a  pig!"  at  which  the  Highlander  again  con- 
sulted his  watch,  and  then  shouted,  "Two  pigs!"  with 
great  enthusiasm,  as  if  that  were  the  time  of  day. 

"  And  you  're  another,"  said  Sir  Walter,  angrily. 
"  If  it  comes  to  that,  we  're  all  pigs." 

"Bear  me!"  cried  Dorothy,  quite  distressed  at  all 
this.  "What  makes  you  all  quarrel  so?  You  ought 
to  be  ashamed  of  yourselves." 

"We  're  all  ashamed  of  one  another,  if  that  will  do 
any  good,"  said  the  Admiral. 

"And,  you  see,  that  gives  each  of  us  two  persons  to 
he  ashamed  of,"  added  Sir  Walter,  with  an  air  of  great 
satisfaction. 

"  But  that  is  n't  what  I  mean  at  all,"  said  Dorothy. 
"  I  mean  that  each  one  of  you  ought  to  be  ashamed 
of  himself." 

"Why,  we  're  each  being  ashamed  of  by  two  persons 
already,"  said  the  Admiral,  peevishly.  "I  should  think 
that  was  enough  to  satisfy  anybody." 

"But  that  is  n't  the  same  thing,"  insisted  Dorothy. 
"  Each  particular  him  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  each 
particular  self."  This  remark  sounded  very  fine  indeed, 


THE    CRUISE    OF    THE    SIDEBOARD  37 

and  Dorothy  felt  so  pleased  with  herself  for  having 
made  it  that  she  went  on  to  say,  "And  the  truth  of 
it  is,  you  all  argue  precisely  like  a  lot  of  little  school- 
children." 

Now,  Dorothy  herself  was  only  ahout  four  feet  high, 
but  she  said  this  in  such  a  superior  manner  that  the 
entire  Caravan  stared  at  her  with  great  admiration  for 
a  moment,  and  then  began  to  give  a  little  cheer;  but 
just  at  this  instant  the  umbrella  made  a  great  plunge, 
as  if  somebody  had  given  it  a  sudden  push,  and  the 
whole  party  tumbled  into  the  bottom  of  it  like  a  lot  of 
dolls. 

"What  kind  of  a  boat  do  you  call  this?"  shouted 
Sir  Walter,  as  they  all  scrambled  to  their  feet  and 
clung  desperately  to  the  handle. 

"It  's  a  paragondola,"  said  the  Admiral,  who  had 
suddenly  become  very  pale.  "You  see,  it  is  n't  exactly 
like  an  ordinary  ship." 

"I  should  think  not!"  said  Sir  Walter,  indignantly. 
"I  'd  as  lief  go  to  sea  in  a  toast-rack.  Why  don't  you 
bring  her  head  up  to  the  wind?"  he  shouted  as  the 
paragondola  took  another  plunge. 

"  I  can't ! "  cried  the  Admiral,  despairingly ;  "  she 
has  n't  got  any  head." 


38  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

"  Then  put  me  ashore ! "  roared  Sir  Walter,  furiously. 

Now  this  was  all  veiy  well  for  Sir  Walter  to  say, 
but  by  this  time  the  paragondola  was  racing  through 
the  water  at  such  a  rate  that  even  the  sideboard  could 
hardly  keep  up  with  it;  and  the  waves  were  tossing 
about  in  such  wild  confusion  that  it  was  perfectly 
ridiculous  for  any  one  to  talk  about  going  ashore.  In 
fact,  it  was  a  most  exciting  moment.  The  air  was 
filled  with  flying  spray,  and  the  paragondola  dashed 
ahead  faster  and  faster,  until  at  last  Dorothy  could  no 
longer  hear  the  sound  of  the  voices,  and  she  could  just 
see  that  they  were  throwing  the  big  watch  overboard 
as  if  to  lighten  the  ship.  Then  she  caught  sight  of  the 
Highlander  trying  to  climb  up  the  handle,  and  Sir 
Walter  frantically  beating  him  on  the  back  with  the 
tobacco-plant,  and  the  next  moment  there  was  another 
wild  plunge  and  the  paragondola  and  Caravan  vanished 
from  sight. 


CHAPTER  IV 

TREE-TOP   COUNTRY 

IT  was  a  very  curious  thing  that  the  storm  seemed 
to  follow  the  Caravan  as  if  it  were  a  private  affair  of 
their  own,  and  the  paragondola  had  no  sooner  disap- 
peared than  Dorothy  found  herself  sailing  along  as 
quietly  as  if  such  a  thing  as  bad  weather  had  never 
been  heard  of.  But  there  was  something  very  lonely 
about  the  sideboard  now,  as  it  went  careering  through 
the  water,  and  she  felt  quite  disconsolate  as  she  sat  on 
the  little  shelf  and  wondered  what  had  become  of  the 
Caravan. 

"If  Mrs.  Peevy's  umbrella  shuts  up  with  them  in- 
side of  it,"  she  said  mournfully  to  herself,  "  I  'm  sure 
I  don't  know  what  they  '11  do.  It  's  such  a  stiff  thing 
to  open  that  it  must  be  perfectly  awful  when  it  shuts 
up  all  of  a  sudden,"  and  she  was  just  giving  a  little 
shudder  at  the  mere  thought  of  such  a  thing,  when  the 
sideboard  bumped  up  against  something  and  she  found 
that  it  had  run  into  a  tree.  In  fact,  she  found  that 


40 


THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 


she  had  drifted  into  a  forest  of  enormous  trees,  grow- 
ing in  a  most  remarkable  manner  straight  up  out  of  the 
lake;  and  as  she  looked  up  she  could  see  great  branches 
stretching  out  in  every  direction  far  above  her  head,  all 
interlaced  together  and  covered  with  leaves  as  if  it  had 
been  midsummer  instead  of  being,  as  it  certainly  was, 
Christmas  day. 

As  the  sideboard  slowly  floated  along  through  this 
strange  forest,  Dorothy  presently  discovered  that  each 


8LOWLY    FLOATED    ALONG    THROUGH    THIS    8TKANOK    FORKST. 


TREE-TOP    COUNTRY  41 

tree  had  a  little  door  in  it,  close  to  the  water's  edge, 
with  a  small  platform  before  it  by  way  of  a  door-step, 
as  if  the  people  who  lived  in  the  trees  had  a  fancy  for 
going  about  visiting  in  boats.  But  she  could  n't  help 
wondering  who  in  the  world,  or,  rather,  who  in  the 
trees,  the  people  went  to  see,  for  all  the  little  doors 
were  shut  as  tight  as  wax,  and  had  notices  posted  up 
on  them,  such  as  "No  admittance,"  "Go  away,"  "Gone 
to  Persia,"  and  many  others,  all  of  which  Dorothy  con- 
sidered extremely  rude,  especially  one  notice  which 
read,  "Beware  of  the  Pig,"  as  if  the  person  who  lived 
in  that  particular  tree  was  too  stingy  to  keep  a  dog. 

Now  all  this  was  very  distressing,  because,  in  the 
first  place,  Dorothy  was  extremely  fond  of  visiting,  and, 
in  the  second  place,  she  was  getting  rather  tired  of 
sailing  about  on  the  sideboard;  and  she  was  therefore 
greatly  pleased  when  she  presently  came  to  a  door 
without  any  notice  upon  it.  There  was,  moreover,  a 
bright  little  brass  knocker  on  this  door,  and  as  this 
seemed  to  show  that  people  were  expected  to  call  there 
if  they  felt  like  it,  she  waited  until  the  sideboard  was 
passing  close  to  the  platform  and  then  gave  a  little 
jump  ashore. 

The   sideboard  took   a   great  roll  backward  and  held 


42  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

up  its  front  feet  as  if  expressing  its  surprise  at  this 
proceeding,  and  as  it  pitched  forward  again  the  doors 
of  it  flew  open,  and  a  number  of  large  pies  fell  out 
into  the  water  and  floated  away  in  all  directions.  To 
Dorothy's  amazement,  the  sideboard  immediately  started 
off  after  them,  and  began  pushing  them  together,  like 
a  shepherd's  dog  collecting  a  flock  of  runaway  sheep; 
and  then,  having  got  them  all  together  in  a  compact 
bunch,  sailed  solemnly  away,  shoving  the  pies  ahead 
of  it. 

Dorothy  now  looked  at  the  door  again,  and  saw  that 
it  was  standing  partly  open.  The  doorway  was  only 
about  as  high  as  her  shoulder,  and  as  she  stooped 
down  and  looked  through  it  she  saw  there  was  a  small 
winding  stairway  inside,  leading  up  through  the  body 
of  the  tree.  She  listened  for  a  moment,  but  every- 
thing was  perfectly  quiet  inside,  so  she  squeezed  in 
through  the  doorway  and  ran  up  the  stairs  as  fast  as 
she  could  go. 

The  stairway  ended  at  the  top  in  a  sort  of  trap-door, 
and  Dorothy  popped  up  through  it  like  a  jack-in-the- 
box;  but  instead  of  coming  out,  as  she  expected, 
among  the  branches  of  the  tree,  she  found  herself  in  a 
wide,  open  field  as  flat  as  a  pancake,  and  with  a  small 


TREE-TOP    COUNTRY 


43 


house  standing  far  out  in  the  middle  of  it.  It  was  a 
bright  and  sunny  place,  and  quite  like  an  ordinary  field 
in  every  way  except  that,  in  place  of  grass,  it  had  a 


DOROTHY  HAKES  A  CALL  IN  THE  TREE-TOP  COUNTRY. 

curious  floor  of  branches,  closely  braided  together  like 
the  bottom  of  a  market-basket;  but,  as  this  seemed 
natural  enough,  considering  that  the  field  was  in  the 


44  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

top  of  a  tree,  Dorothy  hurried  away  to  the  little  house 
without  giving  the  floor  a  second  thought. 

As  she  came  up  to  the  house  she  saw  that  it  was  a 
charming  little  cottage  with  vines  trained  about  the 
latticed  windows,  and  with  a  sign  over  the  door, 
reading  — 


THE    OUTSIDE    INN 


"  I  suppose  they  '11  take  me  for  a  customer,"  she  said, 
looking  rather  doubtfully  at  the  sign,  "and  I  have  n't 
got  any  money.  But  I  'm  very  little,  and  I  won't  stay 
very  long,"  she  added,  by  way  of  excusing  herself,  and 
as  she  said  this  she  softly  pushed  open  the  door  and 
went  in.  To  her  great  surprise,  there  was  no  inside 
to  the  house,  and  she  came  out  into  the  field  again 
on  the  other  side  of  the  door.  The  wall  on  this  side, 
however,  was  nicely  papered,  and  had  pictures  hanging 
on  it,  and  there  were  curtains  at  the  windows  as  if  it 
had  been  one  side  of  a  room  at  some  time  or  another ; 
but  there  was  a  notice  pasted  up  beside  the  door, 
reading  — 


THE 

INN-SIDE 

OUT 

TREE-TOP    COUNTRY  45 

as  if  the  rest  of  the  house  had  gone  out  for  a  walk, 
and  might  be  expected  back  at  any  time. 

Now,  as  you  may  suppose,  Dorothy  was  quite  un- 
prepared for  all  this,  and  she  was  looking  about  in 
great  astonishment  when  she  suddenly  discovered  that 
the  furniture  was  at  home,  and  was  standing  in  a 
rather  lonely  manner  quite  by  itself  in  the  open  field. 
It  was,  moreover,  the  strangest-looking  furniture  she 
had  ever  seen,  for  it  was  growing  directly  out  of  the 
floor  in  a  twisted-up  fashion,  something  like  the  grape- 
vine chairs  in  Uncle  Porticle's  garden;  but  the  oddest 
part  of  it  all  was  a  ridiculous-looking  bed  with  leaves 
sprouting  out  of  its  legs,  and  with  great  pink  blossoms 
growing  on  the  bed-posts  like  the  satin  bows  on  Doro- 
thy's little  bed  at  the  Blue  Admiral  Inn.  All  this  was 
so  remarkable  that  she  went  over  to  where  the  furniture 
was  standing  to  take  a  closer  look  at  it;  and  as  she 
came  up  alongside  the  bed  she  was  amazed  to  see  that 
the  Caravan,  all  three  of  them,  were  lying  in  it  in  a 
row,  with  their  eyes  closed  as  if  they  were  fast  asleep. 
This  was  such  an  unexpected  sight  that  Dorothy 
first  drew  a  long  breath  of  astonishment  and  then  ex- 
claimed, "Jimmy!"  which  was  a  word  she  used  only 
on  particular  occasions;  and,  as  she  said  this,  the 


46  TtiU   ADMIRAL'S   CARAVAN 

Caravan  opened  their  eyes  and  stared  at  her  like  so 
many  owls. 

"Why,  what  are  you  all  doing  here?"  she  said;  at 
which  the  Admiral  sat  up  in  bed,  and  after  taking  a 
hurried  look  at  her  through  his  spy-glass,  said,  "  Ship- 
wrecked!" in  a  solemn  voice  and  then  lay  down  again. 

"Did  the  paragonorer  shut  up  with  you?"  inquired 
Dorothy,  anxiously. 

"Yes,  ma'am,"  said  the  Admiral. 

"And  squashed  us,"  added  Sir  Walter. 

"Like  everything,"  put  in  the  Highlander. 

"I  was  afraid  it  would,"  said  Dorothy,  sorrowfully; 
"I  s'pose  it  was  something  like  being  at  sea  in  a  cor- 
nucopia." 

"Does  a  cornucopia  have  things  in  it  that  pinch 
your  legs?"  inquired  Sir  Walter,  with  an  air  of  great 
interest. 

"Oh,  no,"  said  Dorothy. 

"Then  it  was  n't  like  it  at  all,"  said  Sir  Walter, 
peevishly. 

"It  was  about  as  much  like  it,"  said  the  Admiral, 
"as  a  pump  is  like  a  post-captain";  and  he  said  this 
in  such  a  positive  way  that  Dorothy  did  n't  like  to 
contradict  him.  In  fact  she  really  did  n't  know  any- 


TREE-TOP    COUNTRY 


47 


thing  about  the  matter,  so  she  merely  said,  as  politely 
as  she  could,  "  I  don't  think  I  know  what  a  post- 
captain  is." 

"I  don't  either,"  said  the  Admiral,  promptly,  "but  I 
can  tell  you  how  they  behave";  and  sitting  up  in  bed, 
he  recited  these  verses: 

Post-captain  at  the  Needles  and  commander  of  a  crew 
On  the  "  Royal  Biddy  "  frigate  was  Sir  Peter  Bombazoo ; 
His  mind  was  full  of  music,  and  his  head  was  full  of  tunes, 
And  he  cheerfully  exhibited  on  pleasant  afternoons. 


He  could  whistle,  on  his  fingers,  an  invigorating  reel, 
And  could  imitate  a  piper  on  the  handles  of  the  wheel ; 
He  could  play  in  double  octaves,  too,  all  up  and  down  the 
Or  rattle  off  a  rondo  on  the  bottom  of  a  pail. 


THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 


Then  porters  with 
their  packages,  and  bakers 
with  their  buns, 

And  countesses  in  carriages,  and  grena- 

diers ivith 
guns, 


And  admirals  and  commodores, 

arrived  from  near  and  far 
To  listen  to  the  music  of  this 

entertaining  tar. 

When  they  heard  the  Captain  humming, 

and  beheld  the  dancing  crew, 
The  commodores  severely  said,  "  Why,  this 

will  never  do!" 
And  the  admirals  all  hurried  home, 

remarking,  "This  is  most 
Extraordinary  conduct  for  a  captain  at  his  post.1" 


TREE-TOP    COUNTRY  4 

Then  they  sent  some  sailing-orders  to  Sir  Peter,  in  a  boat, 
And  he  did  a  little  fifing  on  the  edges  of  the  note ; 


1  HE    DID    A    LITTLE    FIFING    ON    THE    EDGES    OF    THE    NOTE.' 


But  he  read  the  sailing-orders,  as,  of  course,  he  had  to  do, 
And  removed  the  "Royal  Biddy"  to  the  Bay  of  Boohgabooh, 

Now,  Sir  Peter  took  it  kindly,  but  it 's  proper  to  explain 
He  was  sent  to  catch  a  pirate  out  upon  the  Spanish  Main  ; 
And  he  played,  with  variations,  an  imaginary  tune 
On  the  buttons  of  his  waistcoat,  like  a  jocular  bassoon. 


50  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

Then  a  topman  saw  the  Pirate  come  a-sailing  in  the  bay, 
And  reported  to  the  Captain  in  the  customary  way. 
"  I  'tt  receive  him,"  said  Sir  Peter,  "  with  a  musical  salute  ! » 
And  he  gave  some  imitations  of  a  double-Jointed  flute. 

Then  the  Pirate  cried  derisively,  "I've  heard  it  done  before!* 
And  he  hoisted  up  a  banner  emblematical  of  gore. 
But  Sir  Peter  said  serenely,  "  You  may  double-shot  the  guns 
While  I  sing  my  little  ballad  of  '  The  Butter  on  the  Buns.'" 

Then  the  Pirate  banged  Sir  Peter  and  Sir  Peter  banged  him 

lack, 

And  they  banged  away  together  as  they  took  another  tack. 
Then  Sir  Peter  said  politely,  "  You  may   board  him,  if  you 

like"  — 
And  he  played  a  little  dirge  upon  the  handle  of  a  pike. 

Then  the  "  Biddies  n  poured  like  hornets  down  upon  the  Pirate's 

deck, 

And  Sir  Peter  caught  the  Pirate,  and  he  took  him  by  the  neck, 
And  remarked,  "  You  must  excuse  me,  but  you  acted  like  a  brute 
When  1  gave  my  imitation  of  that  double-jointed  flute." 

So  they  took  that  wicked  Pirate,  and  they  took  his  wicked  crew, 
And  tied  them  up  with  double  knots  in  packages  of  two ; 
And  left  them  lying  on  their  backs  in  rows  upon  the  beach 
With  a  little  bread  and  water  within  comfortable  reach. 


TREE-TOP    COUNTRY 


51 


Now  the  Pirate  had  a  treasure  (mostly  silverware  and  gold). 
And  Sir  Peter  took  and  stowed  it  in  the  bottom  of  his  hold; 


'SIR    PETER    CAUGHT    THE    PIRATE,    AND    HE    TOOK 


And  said  "  1  will  retire  on  Ms  cargo  of  doubloons. 
And   each  of  you,  my  gallant    crew,  may  have  some  silver 
spoons? 


52  THE   ADMIRAL'S   CARAVAN 

Now  commodores  in  coach-and-fours,  and  corporals  in  cabs, 
And  men  with  carts  of  pies  and  tarts,  and  fishermen  with  crabs, 
And  barristers  ivith  wigs,  in  gigs,  still  gather  on  the  strand  — 
But  there  is  n't  any  music  save  a  little  German  land. 


"I  think  Sir  Peter  was  perfectly  grand!"  said  Doro- 
thy, as  the  Admiral  finished  his  verses.  "He  was  so 
composed." 

"So  was  the  poetry,"  said  the  Admiral.  "It  had  to 
be  composed,  you  know,  or  there  would  n't  have  been 
any." 

"That  would  have  been  fine!"  remarked  the  High- 
lander. 

The  Admiral  got  so  red  in  the  face  at  this,  that 
Dorothy  thought  he  was  going  into  some  kind  of  a 
-It;  but  just  at  this  moment  there  was  a  sharp  rap  at 
the  door,  and  Sir  Walter  exclaimed,  "That  's  Bob 
Scarlet,  and  here  we  are  in  his  flower-bed!" 

"Jibs  and  jiggers!"  said  the  Admiral,  "I  never 
thought  of  that.  What  do  you  suppose  he  '11  do?" 

"  Pick  us ! "  said  the  Highlander,  with  remarkable 
presence  of  mind. 

"Then  tell  him  we  're  all  out,"  said  the  Admiral  to 
Dorothy  in  extreme  agitation,  and  with  this,  the 


TREE-TOP    COUNTRY  53 

whole  Caravan  disappeared  under  the  hed  with  all 
possible  despatch. 

"We  are  out,  you  know,"  said  Dorothy  to  herself, 
"because  there  's  no  in  for  us  to  be  in";  and  then 
she  called  out  in  a  very  loud  voice,  "We  're  all  out 
in  here!"  which  was  n't  exactly  what  she  meant  to 
say,  after  all. 

But  there  was  no  answer,  and  she  was  just  stoop- 
ing down  to  call  through  the  keyhole  when  she  saw 
that  the  wall-paper  was  nothing  but  a  vine  growing 
on  a  trellis,  and  the  door  only  a  little  rustic  gate 
leading  through  it.  "And,  dear  me! — where  has  the 
furniture  gone  to?"  she  exclaimed,  for  the  curly  chairs 
had  changed  into  flower-pot  stands,  and  the  bed  into  a 
great  mound  of  waving  lilies,  and  she  found  herself 
standing  in  a  beautiful  garden. 


CHAPTER  V 
BOB  SCABLET'S  GABDEN 

BEING  in  a  garden  full  of  flowers  at  Christmas-time 
is  a  very  fine  thing;  and  Dorothy  was  looking  about 
with  great  delight,  and  wondering  how  it  had  all  hap- 
pened, when  she  suddenly  caught  sight  of  a  big  robin 
walking  along  one  of  the  paths,  and  examining  the 
various  plants  with  an  air  of  great  interest.  He  was 
a  very  big  robin,  indeed  —  in  fact,  he  was  about  as 
large  as  a  goose;  and  he  had  on  a  gardener's  hat,  and 
a  bright  red  waistcoat  which  he  was  wearing  unbut- 
toned so  as  to  give  his  fat  little  chest  plenty  of  room; 
but  the  most  remarkable  thing  about  htm  was  that 
he  was  walking  about  with  his  hands  in  his  waistcoat- 
pockets. 

Dorothy  had  never  seen  a  robin  do  this  before,  and 
she  was  looking  at  him  in  great  astonishment,  when 
he  chanced  to  turn  around  to  take  a  particular  look 
at  a  large  flower,  and  she  saw  that  he  had  two  cater- 


BOB    SCARLET'S    GARDEN 


55 


pillars  neatly  embroidered  on  the  back  of  his  waist- 
coat so  as  to  form  the  letters  B.  S. 


'HE   WAS    WALKING    ABOUT   WITH    HIS    HANDS    IN    HIS    WAISTCOAT-POCKETS.' 


"  Now  I  wonder  what  B.  S.  means,"  she  said  to  her- 
self with  her  usual  curiosity.  "  It  stands  for  Brown 
Sugar,  but,  of  course,  it  can't  be  that.  Perhaps  it 
means  Best  Suit,  or  Bird  Superintendent,  or — or  — 


56  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

why  it  must  mean  Bob  Scarlet,  to  be  sure ! "  and 
clapping  her  hands  in  the  joy  of  this  discovery,  she 
ran  after  the  Robin  to  take  a  nearer  look  at  him  and, 
if  possible,  to  have  a  little  conversation. 

But  Bob  Scarlet  proved  to  be  a  very  difficult  person 
to  get  near  to.  Over  and  over  again  Dorothy  caught 
sight  of  the  top  of  his  hat  beyond  a  hedge,  or  saw 
the  red  waistcoat  through  the  bushes;  but  no  matter 
how  quickly  she  stole  around  to  the  spot,  he  was  al- 
ways gone  before  she  got  there,  and  she  would  see 
the  hat  or  the  waistcoat  far  away,  in  another  part  of 
the  garden,  and  would  hurry  after  him  only  to  be 
disappointed  as  before.  She  was  getting  very  tired  of 
this,  and  was  walking  around  rather  disconsolately,  when 
she  happened  to  look  at  one  of  the  plants,  and  dis- 
covered that  little  sunbonnets  were  growing  on  it  in 
great  profusion,  like  white  lilies;  and  this  was  such  a 
delightful  discovery,  and  such  an  exceedingly  interesting 
circumstance,  that  she  instantly  forgot  all  about  Bob 
Scarlet,  and  started  away  in  great  excitement  to  ex- 
amine the  other  plants. 

There  was  a  great  variety  of  them,  and  they  all  were 
of  the  same  curious  character.  Besides  the  bonnet- 
bush,  there  were  plants  loaded  down  with  little  pina- 


BOB    SCARLET'S    GARDEN 


57 


fores,  and  shrubs  with  small  shoes  growing  all  over 
them,  like  peas,  and  delicate  vines  of  thread  with  but- 
ton-blossoms on  them,  and,  what  particularly  pleased 


'THERE    WEEK   PLANTS    LOADED    DOWN    WITH    LITTLE    PINAFORES,  AN1)    8HBUBS    WITH    8MJ 
SHOES    GROWING    ALL   OVER   THEM." 


Dorothy,   a   row   of    pots    marked    "FROCK    FLOW 
ERS,"  and  each  containing  a  stalk  with  a  crisp  little 
frock  growing  on  it,  like  a  big  tulip  upside  down. 
"They   're    only    big    enough    for    dolls,"    chattered 


58  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

Dorothy,  as  she  hurried  from  one  to  the  other,  "but, 
of  course,  they  '11  grow.  I  s'pose  it  's  what  they  call 
a  nursery-garden.  Just  fancy — "  she  exclaimed,  stop- 
ping short  and  clasping  her  hands  in  a  rapture,  — "  just 
fancy  going  out  to  pick  an  apronful  of  delightful  new 
stockings,  or  miming  out  every  day  to  see  if  your 
best  frock  is  ripe  yet!"  And  I  'm  sure  I  don't  know 
what  she  would  have  said  next,  but  just  at  this 
moment  she  caught  sight  of  a  paper  lying  in  the 
path  before  her,  and,  of  course,  immediately  became 
interested  in  that. 

It  was  folded  something  like  a  lawyer's  document, 
and  was  very  neatly  marked  in  red  ink  "MEMO- 
RUMDKUMS";  and  after  looking  at  it  curiously  for 
a  moment,  Dorothy  said  to  herself,  "It  's  prob'bly  a 
wash-list;  nothing  but  two  aprons,  and  four  HDKeffs, 
and  ten  towels  —  there  's  always  such  a  lot  of  towels, 
you  know,"  and  here  she  picked  up  the  paper;  but 
instead  of  being  a  wash-list,  she  found  it  contained 
these  verses: 

Have  Angleworms  attractive  homes? 

Do  Bumblebees  have  brains? 
Do  Caterpillars  carry  combs? 

Do  Dodos  dote  on  drains? 


BOB    SCARLET'S    GARDEN  59 

Can  Eels  elude  elastic  earls? 

Do  Flatfish  fish  for  fiats  1 
Are  Grigs  agreeable  to  girls? 

Do  Hares  have  hunting-hats? 
Do  Ices  make  an  Ibex  ill? 

Do  Jackdaws  jug  their  jam  ? 
Do  Kites  kiss  all  the  kids  they  kill? 

Do  Llamas  live  on  lamb? 
Will  Moles  molest  a  mounted  mink? 

Do  Newts  deny  the  news? 
Are  Oysters  boisterous  when  they  drink? 

Do  Parrots  prowl  in  pews  ? 
Do  Quakers  get  their  quills  from  Quails  ? 

Do  EabUts  rob  on  roads  ? 
Are  Snakes  supposed  to  sneer  at  snails? 

Do  Tortoises  tease  toads? 
Can  Unicorns  perform  on  horns  ? 

Do  Vipers  value  veal? 
Do  Weasels  weep  when  fast  asleep  ? 

Can  Xylophagans  squeal  ? 
Do  Yaks  in  packs  invite  attacks  ? 

Are  Zebras  full  of  zeal  ? 
P.  8.  Shake  well  and  recite  every  morning  in  a  shady  place. 

"I  don't  believe  a  single  one  of  them,  and  I  never 
read  such  stuff!"  exclaimed  Dorothy,  indignantly;  and 


60  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

she  was  just  about  to  throw  down  the  paper  when 
Bob  Scarlet  suddenly  appeared,  hurrying  along  the 
path,  and  gazing  anxiously  from  side  to  side  as  if  he 
had  lost  something.  As  he  came  upon  Dorothy,  he 
started  violently,  and  said  "  Shoo ! "  with  great  vehe- 
mence, and  then,  after  staring  at  her  a  moment, 
added,  "Oh,  I  beg  your  pardon — I  thought  you  were 
a  cat.  Have  you  seen  anything  of  my  exercise?" 

"Is  this  it?"  said  Dorothy,  holding  up  the  paper. 

"That  's  it,"  said  the  Kobin,  in  a  tone  of  great  sat- 
isfaction. "Shake  it  hard,  please." 

Dorothy  gave  the  paper  a  good  shake,  after  which 
Bob  Scarlet  took  it  and  stuffed  it  into  his  waistcoat- 
pocket,  remarking,  "It  has  to  be  well  shaken  before  I 
take  it,  you  know." 

"Is  that  the  prescription?"  said  Dorothy,  beginning 
to  laugh. 

"No,  it  's  the  postscription,"  replied  the  Robin,  very 
seriously ;  "  but,  somehow,  I  never  remember  it  till  I 
come  to  it.  I  suppose  it  's  put  at  the  end  so  that 
I  won't  forget  it  the  next  time.  You  see,  it  's  about 
the  only  exercise  I  have." 

"  I  should  think  it  was  very  good  exercise,"  said 
Dorothy,  trying  to  look  serious  again. 


BOB   SCARLET'S    GARDEN  61 

"  Oh,  it  's  good  enough,  what  there  is  of  it,"  said 
the  Robin,  in  an  offhand  way. 

"But  I  'm  sure  there  's  enough  of  it,"  said  Dorothy. 

"  There  is  enough  of  it,  such  as  it  is,"  replied  the 
Robin. 

"  Such  as  it  is  I "  repeated  Dorothy,  beginning  to  feel 
a  little  perplexed.  "Why,  it  's  hard  enough,  I  'm  sure- 
It  's  enough  to  drive  a  person  quite  distracted." 

"Well,  it  's  a  corker  till  you  get  used  to  it,"  said 
the  Robin,  strutting  about.  "  There  's  such  a  tre- 
mendous variety  to  it,  you  see,  that  it  exercises  you 
all  over  at  once." 

This  was  so  ridiculous  that  Dorothy  laughed  out- 
right. "I  should  never  get  used  to  it,"  she  said.  "I 
don't  believe  I  know  a  single  one  of  the  answers." 

"  I  do ! "  said  Bob  Scarlet,  proudly ;  "  I  know  'em 
all.  It  's  'No'  to  everything  in  it." 

"Dear  me!"  said  Dorothy,  feeling  quite  provoked  at 
herself,  "of  course  it  is.  I  never  thought  of  that." 

"And  when  you  can  answer  them,"  continued  the 
Robin,  with  a  very  important  air,  "you  can  answer 
anything." 

Now,  as  the  Robin  said  this,  it  suddenly  occurred  to 
Dorothy  that  she  had  been  lost  for  quite  a  long  time, 


62 


THE   ADMIRAL'S   CARAVAN 


and  that  this  was  a  good  opportunity  for  getting  a 
little  information,  so  she  said  very  politely :  "  Then  I 
wish  you  'd  please  tell  me  where  I  am." 

"Why,  you  're  here,"  replied  the  Eobin,  promptly. 
"  That  's  what  /  call  an  easy  one." 

"  But  where  is  it  ?  "  said  Dorothy. 

"Where  is  what?"  said  the  Robin,  looking  rathei 
puzzled. 


«'  '  WHY,   THE   PLACE   WHEBE    I    AM,'    SAID   DOROTHY." 

"Why,  the  place  where  I  am,71 
said  Dorothy. 

"  That  's  here,  too,"  replied  the 


BOB   SCARLET'S    GARDEN  63 

Robin,  and  then,  looking  at  her  suspiciously,  he  added, 
"Come  —  no  chaffing,  you  know.  I  won't  have  it." 

"But  I  'm  not  chaffing,"  said  Dorothy,  beginning  to 
feel  a  little  provoked;  "it  's  only  because  you  twist 
the  things  I  say  the  wrong  way." 

"What  do  you  say  'em  the  wrong  way  for,  then?" 
said  Bob  Scarlet,  irritably.  "  Why  don't  you  get  'em 
straight?" 

"  Dear  me ! "  exclaimed  Dorothy,  now  quite  out  of 
patience.  "How  dreadfully  confusing  it  all  is!  Don't 
you  understand?  —  I  only  want  to  know  where  the 
place  is  where  I  am  now, — whereabouts  in  the  geogra- 
phy, I  mean,"  she  added  in  desperation. 

"It  is  n't  in  there  at  all,"  said  Bob  Scarlet,  very 
decidedly.  "There  is  n't  a  geography  going  that  could 
hold  on  to  it  for  five  minutes." 

"Do  you  mean  that  it  is  n't  anywhere?"  exclaimed 
Dorothy,  beginning  to  feel  a  little  frightened. 

"No,  I  don't,"  said  Bob  Scarlet,  obstinately.  "I 
mean  that  it  is  anywhere  —  anywhere  that  it  chooses 
to  be,  you  know;  only  it  does  n't  stay  anywhere  any 
longer  than  it  likes." 

"  Then  I  'm  going  away,"  said  Dorothy,  hastily.  "  I 
won't  stay  in  such  a  place." 


THE   ADMIRAL'S  CARAVAN 


"Well,  you  'd  better  be  quick  about  it,"  said  the 
Robin,  with  a  chuckle,  "  or  there  won't  be  any  place 
to  go  away  from.  I  can  feel  it  beginning  to  go  now," 
and  with  this  remark  Bob  Scarlet  himself  hurried 
away. 

There  was  something  so  alarming  in  the  idea  of  a 
place  going  away  and  leaving  her  behind,  that  Dorothy 

started  off  at  once, 
as  fast  as  she  could 
run,  and  indeed  she 
was  n't  a  moment 
too  soon.  The  gar- 
den itself  was  al- 
ready beginning  to 
be  very  much  agita- 
ted, and  the  clothes 
on  the  plants  were 
folding  themselves 
up  in  a  fluttering 
sort  of  a  way  as 
she  ran  past  them;  and  she  noticed,  moreover,  that 
the  little  shoes  on  the  shoe-shrub  were  so  withered  away 
that  they  looked  like  a  lot  of  raisins.  But  she  had  no 
time  to  stop  and  look  at  such  things,  and  she  ran  on 


DOROTHY    STARTED   OFF    AT   ONCE,    AS   FAST    AS   SHE 
COULD  ROM." 


BOB    SCARLET'S   GARDEN  65 

and  on  until,  to  her  delight,  she  came  suddenly  upon 
the  little  trap-door  where  she  had  come  up.  There  was 
n't  a  minute  to  spare,  and  she  jumped  down  into  the 
hole  without  so  much  as  stopping  to  look  hack  at  the 
vanishing  garden,  and  hurried  down  the  little  stairway. 
It  was  as  dark  as  pitch,  and  as  she  ran  down,  going 
around  and  around,  on  the  winding  stairs,  she  could 
hear  them  folding  up  behind  her  like  the  slats  of  a  blind ; 
and  she  had  just  time  to  rush  through  the  door  at  the 
bottom,  when  the  trunk  of  the  tree  flapped  inward 
like  an  empty  bag  and  then  shot  up  into  the  air. 


CHAPTER   VI 

IN    THE    TOY-SHOP 

THE  first  thing  that  Dorothy  did  was  to  draw  a  long 
breath  over  her  narrow  escape,  and  the  next  thing  was 
to  look  up  into  the  air  to  see  what  had  become  of  the 
tree,  and  she  saw  the  braided  floor  of  the  garden  float- 
ing away,  far  above  her  head,  with  the  flapping  trunks 
of  the  trees  dangling  from  it  like  a  lot  of  one-legged 
trousers.  This  was  a  rather  ridiculous  spectacle,  and 
when  the  floor  presently  shriveled  up  into  a  small 
brown  patch,  like  a  flying  pancake,  and  then  went 
entirely  out  of  sight,  she  said  "Pooh!"  very  contemp- 
tuously and  felt  quite  brave  again. 

"It  was  n't  half  so  solemn  as  I  expected,"  she  went 
on,  chattering  to  herself;  "I  certainly  thought  there 
would  be  all  kinds  of  phenomeners,  and,  after  all,  it  's 
precisely  like  nothing  but  a  big  basket  of  old  clothes, 
blowing  away.  But  it  's  just  as  well  to  be  saved,  of 


IN   THE    TOY- SHOP 


67 


course,  only  I  don't  know  where  I  am  any  more  than 
I  did  before.  It  's  a  kind  of  wooden  floor,  I  think," 
she  added,  stamping  on  it  with  her  little  shoe;  "and, 
dear  me!  I  verily  believe  it  's  nothing  but  a  shelf.  It 
is  a  shelf!"  she  exclaimed,  peeping  cau- 
tiously over  the  edge;  "and  there  's  the 
real  floor  ever  so  far  away.  I  can  never 
jump  down  there  in 
the  world  without  be- 
ing dashed  to  destruc- 
tion !  "  —  and  she  was 
just  thinking  how  it 
would  do  to  hang  from 
the  edge  of  the  shelf 
by  her  hands  and  then 
let  herself  drop  (with 
her  eyes  shut,  of  course) 
when  a  little  party  of 

people  came  tumbling  down  through  the  air  and  fell  in 
a  heap  close  beside  her.  She  gave  a  scream  of  dismay 
and  then  stood  staring  at  them  in  utter  bewilderment 
for,  as  the  party  scrambled  to  their  feet,  she  saw  they 
were  the  Caravan,  dressed  up  in  the  most  extraordi- 
nary fashion,  in  little  frocks  and  long  shawls,  and  all 


'IT  IB  A  SHELF!'  SHE  EXCLAIMED." 


THE    ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 


wearing  sunbonnets.  The  Highlander,  with  his  usual 
bad  luck,  had  put  on  his  sunbonnet  backward,  with 
the  crown  over  his  face,  and  was  struggling  with  it  so 


"THE    HIGHLANDER,   WITH    HIS    USUAL   BAD  IUCK,  HAD    PUT    ON    HIS 
SUNBONNET   BACKWARD." 

helplessly  that  Dorothy  rushed  at  him  and  got  it  off 
just  in  time  to  save  him  from  being  suffocated.  In 
fact,  he  was  so  black  in  the  face  that  she  had  to 
pound  him  on  the  back  to  bring  him  to. 


IN   THE    TOY -SHOP  69 

"We  're  disguised,  you  know,"  said  the  Admiral, 
breathlessly.  "We  found  these  things  under  the  bed. 
Bob  Scarlet  is  n't  anywhere  about,  is  he?"  he  added, 
staring  around  in  an  agitated  manner  through  his 
spy-glass. 

"About?"  said  Dorothy,  trying  to  look  serious.  "I 
should  think  he  was  about  five  miles  from  here  by 
this  time." 

"I  wish  it  was  five  thousand,"  exclaimed  Sir  Wal- 
ter, angrily,  smoothing  down  his  frock.  "  Old  Peck- 
jabber!" 

"  Why,  what  in  the  world  is  the  matter  ? "  said 
Dorothy,  beginning  to  laugh  in  spite  of  herself. 

"  Matter ! "  exclaimed  the  Admiral,  his  voice  fairly 
trembling  with  emotion ;  "  why,  look  here !  We  was 
all  shrinking  away  to  nothing  in  that  wanishing  gar- 
den. Bob  Scarlet  himself  was  no  bigger  than  an  ant 
when  we  came  away." 

"  And  we  was  n't  any  bigger  than  uncles,"  put  in 
the  Highlander. 

"  You  're  not  more  than  three  inches  high  this  min- 
ute," said  Sir  Walter,  surveying  Dorothy  with  a  critical 
air,  with  his  head  cocked  on  one  side. 

"  Goodness   gracious ! "    exclaimed    Dorothy,    with    a 


70  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

start.  "  It  seems  to  me  that  's  extremely  small.  I 
should  think  that  I  'd  have  felt  it  coming  on." 

"It  comes  on  sort  of  sneaking,  and  you  don't  notice 
it,"  said  the  Admiral.  "  We  W  have  been  completely 
inwisible  by  this  time  if  we  had  n't  jumped  over- 
board." 

"  It  was  an  awful  jump ! "  said  Dorothy,  solemnly. 
"Did  n't  it  hurt  to  fall  so  far?" 

"Not  at  all,"  said  the  Admiral,  cheerfully.  "The 
falling  part  of  it  was  quite  agreeable  —  so  cool  and 
rushing,  you  know ;  but  the  landing  was  tremenjious 
severe." 

"Banged  us  like  anything,"  explained  the  High- 
lander; and  with  this  the  Caravan  locked  arms  and 
walked  away  with  the  tails  of  their  shawls  trailing 
behind  them. 

"  What  strange  little  things  they  are ! "  said  Dor* 
othy,  reflectively,  as  she  walked  along  after  them, 
"and  they  're  for  all  the  world  precisely  like  arimated 
dolls  —  movable,  you  know,"  she  added,  not  feeling 
quite  sure  that  "  arimated "  was  the  proper  word, — 
"  and  speaking  of  dolls,  here  's  a  perfect  multitude  of 
'em!"  she  exclaimed,  for  just  then  she  came  upon  a 
long  row  of  dolls  beautifully  dressed,  and  standing  on 


IN    THE  TOY-SHOP  71 

their  heels  with  their  heads  against  the  walL  They 
were  at  least  five  times  as  big  as  Dorothy  herself,  and 
had  price-tickets  tucked  into  their  sashes,  such  as 
"  2/6,  CHEAP,"  "  5s.,  EEAL  WAX,"  and  so  on ;  and  Dor- 
othy, clapping  her  hands  in  an  ecstasy  of  delight, 
exclaimed :  "  Why,  it  's  a  monstrous,  enormous  toy- 
shop!" and  then  she  hurried  on  to  see  what  else  there 
might  be  on  exhibition. 

"Marbles,  prob'bly,"  she  remarked,  peering  over  the 
edge  of  a  basket  full  of  what  looked  like  enormous 
stone  cannon-balls  of  various  colors;  "for  mastodons, 
I  should  say,  only  I  don't  know  as  they  ever  play 
marbles, —  grocery  shop,  full  of  dear  little  drawers 
with  real  knobs  on  'em, — 'pothecary's  shop  with  true 
pill-boxes,"  she  went  on,  examining  one  delightful 
thing  after  another ;  "  and  here  's  a  farm  out  of  a 
box,  and  all  the  same  funny  old  things  —  trees  with 
green  shavings  on  them  and  fences  with  feet  so 
they  '11  stand  up,  and  here  's  the  dear  fam'ly,  same 
size  as  the  trees  and  the  houses,  of  course,  and — oh ! 
I  beg  your  pardon,"  she  exclaimed,  for  her  frock  had 
touched  the  farmer  and  knocked  him  over  flat  on  his 
back.  "  And  here  's  a  Noah's  Ark,  full  of  higgledy- 
piggledy  animals  —  why,  what  are  you  doing  here?" 


72  THE  ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

she  cried,  for  just  at  that  moment  she  suddenly  dis- 
covered the  Caravan,  all  huddled  together  at  the  door 
of  the  ark,  and  apparently  discussing  something  of 
vast  importance. 

"  We  're  buying  a  camel,"  said  the  Admiral,  ex- 
citedly ;  "  they  Ve  got  just  the  one  we  want  for  the 
Caravan." 

"His  name  is  Humphrey,"  shouted  the  Highlander, 
uproariously,  "  and  he  's  got  three  humps ! " 

"  Nonsense ! "  cried  Dorothy,  bursting  into  a  fit  of 
uncontrollable  laughter.  "  There  never  was  such  a 
thing." 

"They  have  'em  in  arks,"  said  the  Admiral,  very 
earnestly.  "You  can  find  anything  in  arks  if  you  only 
go  deep  enough.  I  've  seen  'em  with  patriarchs  in 
'em,  'way  down  at  the  bottom." 

"  Did  they  have  any  humps  ? "  inquired  the  High- 
lander with  an  air  of  great  interest. 

Dorothy  went  off  again  into  a  burst  of  laughter  at 
this.  "He  's  really  the  most  ignorant  little  creature  I 
ever  saw,"  she  said. 

"  I  thought  they  was  something  to  ride  on,"  said  the 
Highlander,  sulkily;  "otherwise,  I  say,  let  'em  keep 
out  of  arks ! "  The  rest  of  the  Caravan  evidently 


IN   THE    TOY-SHOP  73 

sided  with  him  in  this  opinion,  and  after  staring  at 
Dorothy  for  a  moment  with  great  disfavor  they  all 
called  out  "  Old  Proudie ! "  and  solemnly  walked  off  in 
a  row  as  before. 

"  I  believe  I  shall  have  a  fit  if  I  meet  them  again," 
said  Dorothy  to  herself,  laughing  till  her  eyes  were 
full  of  tears.  "They  're  certainly  the  foolishest  things 
I  ever  saw,"  and  with  this  she  walked  away  through 
the  shop,  and  was  just  beginning  to  look  at  the  toys 
again,  when  she  came  suddenly  upon  an  old  dame  sit- 
ting contentedly  in  the  shop  in  a  great  arm-chair.  She 
was  eating  porridge  out  of  a  bowl  in  her  lap,  and  her 
head  was  so  close  to  the  edge  of  the  shelf  that  Dor- 
othy almost  walked  into  her  cap. 

"  Drat  the  toys ! "  cried  the  old  dame,  starting  so 
violently  that  her  spectacles  fell  off  her  nose  into 
the  porridge.  "Drat  the  new-fangled  things!" — and 
here  she  aimed  a  blow  at  Dorothy  with  her  spoon. 
"They  're  enough  to  scare  folks  out  of  their  senses. 
Give  me  the  old-fashioned  kind  —  deaf  and  dumb  and 
blind  and  stiff" — but  by  this  tune  Dorothy,  almost 
frightened  out  of  her  wits,  had  run  away  and  was  hid- 
ing behind  a  doll's  sofa. 

"  She  's  a  nice  person  to  have  charge  of  a  shop,"  she 


74  THE   ADMIRAL'S   CARAVAN 

exclaimed  indignantly,  as  she  listened  to  the  old  dame 
scolding  to  herself  in  the  distance.  "  The  idea  of  not 
knowing  human  persons  when  you  see  them !  Of 
course,  being  so  small  is  rather  unusual,  and  it  's 
really  quite  dangerous,  you  know,"  she  went  on,  giv- 
ing a  little  shiver  at  the  thought  of  what  might  have 
happened.  "  Just  fancy  being  wrapped  up  in  a  piece 
of  stiff  paper  by  mistake  —  shrieking  would  n't  do  the 
least  good  because,  of  course,  she  's  deaf  as  any- 
thing— " 


"How  much  are  you  a  dozen  I"  said  a  voice,  and 
Dorothy,  looking  around,  saw  that  it  was  a  Dancing- 
Jack  in  the  shop-window  speaking  to  her.  He  was 
a  gorgeous  creature,  with  bells  on  the  seams  of  his 
clothes  and  with  arms  and  legs  of  different  colors,  and 
he  was  lounging  in  an  easy  attitude  with  his  right  leg 
thrown  over  the  top  of  a  toy  livery-stable  and  his  left 
foot  in  a  large  ornamental  tea-cup;  but  as  he  was  fas- 
tened to  a  hook  by  a  loop  in  the  top  of  his  hat,  Dor- 
othy did  n't  feel  in  the  least  afraid  of  him. 

"  Thank  you,"  she  replied  with  much  dignity, 
"  I  'm  not  a  dozen  at  all.  I  'm  a  single  person.  That 


IN   THE    TOY- 8 HOP 


75 


'TOU    KNOW    TOUR   SIZE    DOES    COME    IN    DOZENS,   ASSORTED,' 
CONTINUED    THE   JACK." 


sounds  kind  of  unmarried,"  she  thought  to  herself, 
ubut  it  's  the  exact  truth." 

"  No  offense,  I  hope,"  said  the  Jack,  looking  some- 
what abashed. 

"No  —  not  exactly,"  said  Dorothy  rather  stiffly. 

"  You  know,  your  size  does  come  in  dozens  —  as- 
sorted," continued  the  Jack,  with  quite  a  professional 


76  THE  ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

air.  "  Family  of  nine,  two  maids  with  dusters,  and 
cook  with  removable  apron.  Very  popular,  I  believe." 

"  So  I  should  think,"  remarked  Dorothy,  beginning 
to  recover  her  good  nature. 

"But  of  course  singles  are  much  more  select,"  said 
the  Jack.  "We  never  come  in  dozens,  you  know." 

"  I  suppose  not,"  said  Dorothy,  innocently.  "  I  can't 
imagine  anybody  wanting  twelve  Dancing-Jacks  all  at 
the  same  time." 

"  It  would  n't  do  any  good  if  they  did  want  'em," 
said  the  Jack.  "They  could  n't  get  'em, —  that  is,  not 
in  this  shop." 

Now,  while  this  conversation  was  going  on,  Dorothy 
noticed  that  the  various  things  in  the  shop-window 
had  a  curious  way  of  constantly  turning  into  some- 
thing else.  She  discovered  this  by  seeing  a  little 
bunch  of  yellow  peg-tops  change  into  a  plateful  of 
pears  while  she  chanced  to  be  looking  at  them;  and 
a  moment  afterward  she  caught  a  doll's  saucepan,  that 
was  hanging  in  one  corner  of  the  window,  just  in  the 
act  of  quietly  turning  into  a  battledore  with  a  red 
morocco  handle.  This  struck  her  as  being  such  a 
remarkable  performance  that  she  immediately  began 
looking  at  one  thing  after  another,  and  watching  the 
various  changes,  until  she  was  quite  bewildered. 


IN   THE   TOY-SHOP  77 

"It  's  something  like  a  Christmas  pantomime,"  she 
said  to  herself;  "and  it  is  n't  the  slightest  use,  you 
know,  trying  to  fancy  what  anything  's  going  to  be, 
because  everything  that  happens  is  so  unproblesome. 
I  don't  know  where  I  got  that  word  from,"  she  went 
on,  "but  it  seems  to  express  exactly  what  I  mean. 
F'r  instance,  there  's  a  little  cradle  that  's  just  been 
turned  into  a  coal-scuttle,  and  if  that  is  n't  unproble- 
some, well  then — never  mind!"  (which,  as  you  know, 
is  a  ridiculous  way  little  girls  have  of  finishing  their 
sentences.) 

By  this  time  she  had  got  around  again  to  the  toy 
livery-stable,  and  she  was  extremely  pleased  to  find 
that  it  had  turned  into  a  smart  little  baronial  castle 
with  a  turret  at  each  end,  and  that  the  ornamental 
tea-cup  was  just  changing,  with  a  good  deal  of  a 
flourish,  into  a  small  rowboat  floating  in  a  little 
stream  that  ran  by  the  castle  walls. 

"Come,  that  's  the  finest  thing  yet!"  exclaimed 
Dorothy,  looking  at  all  this  with  great  admiration; 
"and  I  wish  a  brazen  knight  would  come  out  with  a 
trumpet  and  blow  a  blast" — you  see,  she  was  quite 
romantic  at  times  —  and  she  was  just  admiring  the 
clever  way  in  which  the  boat  was  getting  rid  of  the 
handle  of  the  tea-cup,  when  the  Dancing-Jack  sud- 


78  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

denly  stopped  talking,  and  began  scrambling  over  the 
roof  of  the  castle.  He  was  extremely  pale,  and,  to 
Dorothy's  alarm,  spots  of  bright  colors  were  coming 
out  all  over  him,  as  if  he  had  been  made  of  stained 
glass,  and  was  being  lighted  up  from  the  inside. 

"I  believe  I  'm  going  to  turn  into  something,"  he 
said,  glaring  wildly  about,  and  speaking  in  a  very 
agitated  voice. 

"  Groodness ! "  exclaimed  Dorothy  in  dismay ;  "  what 
do  you  suppose  it  's  going  to  be?" 

"I  think — "  said  the  Jack,  solemnly, —  "I  think  it  's 
going  to  be  a  patchwork  quilt,"  but  just  as  he  was 
finishing  this  remark  a  sort  of  wriggle  passed  through 
him,  and,  to  Dorothy's  amazement,  he  turned  into  a 
slender  Harlequin  all  made  up  of  spangles  and  shin- 
ing triangles. 

Now  this  was  all  very  well,  and,  of  course,  much 
better  than  turning  into  a  quilt  of  any  sort ;  but  as 
the  Dancing-Jack's  last  remark  went  on  without  stop- 
ping, and  was  taken  charge  of,  so  to  speak,  and  fin- 
ished by  the  Harlequin,  it  mixed  up  the  two  in  a 
very  confusing  way.  In  fact,  by  the  tune  the  remark 
came  to  an  end,  Dorothy  did  n't  really  know  which  of 
them  was  talking  to  her,  and,  to  make  matters  worse, 


IN   THE    TOY-SHOP  79 

the  Harlequin  vanished  for  a  moment,  and  then  reap- 
peared, about  one  half  of  his  original  size,  coming  out 
of  the  door  of  the  castle  with  an  unconcerned  air  as  if 
he  had  n't  had  anything  to  do  with  the  affair. 

"It  's  dreadfully  confusing,"  said  Dorothy  to  herself, 
"not  to  know  which  of  two  persons  is  talking  to  you, 
'specially  when  there  's  really  only  one  of  them  here " : 
but  she  never  had  a  chance  to  find  out  anything 
about  the  matter,  for  in  the  mean  tune  a  part  of  the 
castle  had  quietly  turned  upside  down,  and  was  now  a 
little  stone  bridge  with  the  stream  flowing  beneath  it, 
and  the  Harlequin,  who  was  constantly  getting  smaller 
and  smaller,  was  standing  with  one  foot  in  the  boat 
as  if  he  were  trying  to  choose  between  taking  a 
little  excursion  on  the  water  and  going  out  of  sight 
altogether. 

"Excuse  me  —  but  did  you  say  anything?"  said 
Dorothy,  feeling  quite  sure  that  there  was  no  time  to 
be  lost. 

"All  that  /  said  was  'quilt,'"  replied  the  Harlequin; 
"I  suppose  there  's  no  particular  harm  hi  that?" 

"Oh,  dear,  no!"  said  Dorothy,  hastily;  "only  it 
seems  a  rather  queer  way  of  beginning  a  conversation, 
you  know." 


80 


THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 


"  It  's  as  good  as  any  other  way  if  it  's  all  you  have 
to  say,"  said  the  Harlequin,  and  by  this  time  he  had 
both  feet  in  the  boat,  and  had  evidently  decided  on 
the  water  excursion,  for,  before  Dorothy  could  think 
of  anything  more  to  say  to  him,  he  sailed  away  under 
the  bridge  and  disappeared. 


HE    BAILED    AWAY    UNDER    THE    BRIDGE.' 


CHAPTER    VH 

THE    SONG    IN    THE    DELL 

"I  'M  sorry  he  's  gone,"  said  Dorothy  to  herself, 
gazing  with  longing  eyes  after  the  Harlequin.  "He 
was  n't  much  to  talk  to,  but  he  was  awful  beautiful 
to  look  at";  and,  having  relieved  her  mind  by  this 
remark,  she  was  just  starting  to  take  another  walk 
through  the  shop  when  she  suddenly  caught  sight  of 
a  small  door  in  one  corner.  It  was  n't  much  larger 
than  a  rat-hole,  but  it  was  big  enough  for  her  to  go 
through,  and  that,  of  course,  was  the  important  thing; 
and  as  she  never  could  bear  to  go  by  strange  door- 
ways until  she  knew  where  they  led  to,  she  immedi- 
ately ran  through  this  one,  and,  quite  to  her  surprise, 
found  herself  outside  the  toy-shop. 

There  was  a  steep  bank  here  sloping  down  from  the 
wall  of  the  shop,  and  Dorothy  was  much  interested 
at  discovering  that  it  was  completely  overgrown  with 
little  green  rocking-chairs.  They  were  growing  about 
in  great  confusion,  and  once  or  twice,  when  her  frock 


82  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

happened  to  brush  against  them,  quite  an  avalanche  of 
them  went  clattering  down  the  bank  and  broke  up  at 
the  bottom  into  curious  little  bits  of  wood  like  jack- 
straws.  This  made  climbing  down  the  bank  very 
exciting,  but  she  got  safely  to  the  bottom  at  last,  and 
was  just  starting  off  for  another  journey  of  discovery 
when  she  came  suddenly  upon  the  toy  farm-house 
standing  quite  by  itself  in  the  open  country.  None  of 
the  family  was  present  except  the  Farmer,  who  was 
standing  in  front  of  the  house,  staring  at  it  in  a 
bewildered  way  as  if  he  had  never  laid  eyes  on  it 
before.  He  was  a  plain-featured  man,  with  a  curious 
little  hat  something  like  the  lid  of  a  coffee-pot,  and 
with  a  great  number  of  large  yellow  buttons  arranged 
on  the  front  of  his  coat  like  a  row  of  cream-tarts; 
and,  after  the  manner  of  all  toy-farmers,  he  was 
buried  to  the  ankles  in  a  round  piece  of  wood  to 
keep  him  from  falling  over. 

Now  Dorothy  had  always  particularly  wanted  to  see 
the  inside  of  a  toy  farm-house,  and,  as  this  seemed 
to  be  an  excellent  opportunity,  she  walked  up  to  the 
Farmer  and  said,  very  politely,  "Can  I  see  your  house?" 

"I  should  think  you  could  if  you  looked  at  it,"  said 
the  Farmer,  staring  first  at  her  and  then  at  the  house, 


THE    SONG    IN    THE   DELL  83 

as  if  he  were  greatly  surprised  at  the  question;  "/  can 
see  it  easily  enough." 

"  But  I  mean,  can  I  go  over  it  $  "  said  Dorothy,  rather 
confused  by  this  answer. 

The  Farmer  rubbed  his  nose  and  looked  thoughtfully 
at  the  roof  of  the  house  for  a  moment  and  then  said, 
rather  sulkily,  "Yes,  I  suppose  you  can,  but  you  must 
agree  not  to  knock  off  the  chimbleys." 

"Dear  me,"  said  Dorothy,  beginning  to  laugh,  "that 
is  n't  what  I  mean  at  all.  I  mean,  can  I  go  through 
it?" 

The  Farmer,  after  turning  over  this  proposition  in  his 
mind  with  great  deliberation,  got  down  on  his  hands 
and  knees  and  took  a  long  look  through  the  little  door 
in  the  front  of  the  house,  and  then  getting  up  on 
his  feet  again,  said,  very  seriously,  "I  don't  see  any- 
thing to  prevent  it ;  there  's  another  door  at  the  back," 
— and  walked  gravely  away.  He  did  this  in  a  very 
peculiar  way,  by  a  sort  of  sidelong  roll  on  his  round 
wooden  block  like  a  barrel  being  worked  along  on  one 
end;  and,  as  Dorothy  stood  watching  this  performance 
with  great  interest,  he  presently  fell  over  one  of  the 
little  rocking-chairs,  and  coming  down  heavily  on  his 
back,  rolled  away  on  the  edge  of  his  block  and  the  rim 


84  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

of  his  little  round  hat  without  making  the   slightest 
attempt  to  get  on  his  feet  again. 

"I  shall  look  precisely  like  a  elephant  with  a 
pagoda  on  his  back,"  said  Dorothy,  as  she  got  down 
on  her  hands  and  knees  and  crawled  through  the  little 
door  into  the  house,  "but  I  'm  going  to  see  what  it 's 
like  while  I  have  the  chance.  All  hollow,  right  up 
to  the  roof,  just  as  I  expected,"  she  exclaimed.  "I 
s'pose  that  's  so  the  fam'ly  can  stand  up  when  they 
come  inside."  But  there  was  nothing  in  the  house  but 
a  lot  of  old  umbrellas  tied  up  in  bundles  and  marked 
"DANGEROUS,"  and  as  she  did  n't  think  these  were 
very  interesting,  and  as,  moreover,  her  head  by  this 
time  was  out  of  the  door  at  the  back,  she  crawled 
through  without  stopping  and  scrambled  up  on  to  her 
feet  again. 


"  Oh,  lovely ! "  cried  Dorothy,  clapping  her  hands  in 
a  rapture  of  delight;  for  she  found  herself  in  a  beauti- 
ful wood — not  a  make-believe  affair  like  the  toy-farm, 
but  a  real  wood  with  soft  grass  and  pads  of  dark-green 
moss  growing  underfoot,  and  with  ferns  and  forest 
flowers  springing  up  on  all  sides.  The  wind  was  rus- 


THE    SONG   IN    THE   DELL  85 

tling  pleasantly  in  the  trees,  and  the  sunlight,  shining 
down  through  the  dancing  leaves,  made  little  patches 
of  light  that  chased  each  other  about  on  the  grass,  and, 
as  Dorothy  walked  along,  she  felt  happier  than  she  had 
at  any  time  since  losing  the  Blue  Admiral  Inn.  To  be 
sure,  it  was  n't  the  easiest  matter  in  the  world  to  get 
along,  for  as  the  trees  and  the  bushes  and  the  blades  of 
grass  were  all  of  the  natural  size  and  Dorothy  was  no 
bigger  than  a  wren,  she  fell  over  a  good  many  twigs 
and  other  small  obstacles,  and  tumbled  down  a  great 
many  times.  Then,  too,  she  found  it  rather  trying  to 
her  nerves,  at  first,  to  meet  with  rabbits  as  big  as 
horses,  to  come  suddenly  upon  quails  whistling  like 
steam-engines,  and  to  be  chattered  at  by  squirrels  a 
head  taller  than  she  herself  was;  but  she  was  a  very 
wise  little  child  about  such  matters,  and  she  said  to 
herself,  "Why,  of  course,  they  're  only  their  usual 
sizes,  you  know,  and  they  're  sure  to  be  the  same  scary 
things  they  always  are," — and  then  she  stamped  her 
foot  at  them  and  said  "  Shoo!"  very  boldly,  and, 
after  laughing  to  see  the  great  creatures  whisk  about 
and  dash  into  the  thicket,  she  walked  along  quite 
contentedly. 
Presently  she  heard  a  voice  singing.  It  seemed  to 


86 


THE   ADMIRAL'S   CARAVAN 


come  from   a  thick  part  of  the  wood  at  one  side  of 
the  path;  and,  after  hesitating  a  moment,  Dorothy  stole 


'SHE    FOUND    IT    RATHEK    TRYING    TO    HKH    NERVES,    AT    FIRST,  TO    MEET 
WITH    RABBITS    AS   BIO    AS    HORSES." 


into  the  bushes,  and,  creeping  cautiously  along  until 
she  was  quite  near  the  sound,  crouched  down  in  the 
thicket  to  listen. 


THE   SONG    IN   THE   DELL 


87 


"—TO    BE   CHATTERED   AT   BY    SQUIRRELS    A   HEAD    TALLER   THAN 
SHE    HERSELF    WAS." 


It  was  a  very  small  voice,  and  it  was  singing  this 
song: 

I  know  a  way 
Of  hearing  what  the  larks  and  linnets  say. 

The  larks  tell  of  the  sunshine  and  the  sky ; 

The  linnets  from  the  hedges  make  reply, 
And  boast  of  hidden  nests  with  mocking  lay. 


88  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

I  know  a  way 

Of  keeping  near  the  rabbits  at  their  play. 
They  tell  me  of  the  cool  and  shady  nooks 
Where  waterfalls  disturb  the  placid  brooks 
That  I  may  go  and  frolic  in  the  spray. 

I  know  a  way 

Of  catching  dewdrops  on  a  night  in  May, 
And  threading  them  upon  a  spear  of  green. 
That  through  their  sides  translucent  may  be  seen 
The  sparkling  hue  that  emeralds  display. 

I  know  a  way 

Of  trapping  sunbeams  as  they  nimbly  play 
At  hide-and-seek  with  meadow-grass  and  flowers, 
And  holding  them  in  store  for  dreary  hours 
When  winds  are  chill  and  all  the  sky  is  gray. 

I  know  a  way 

Of  stealing  fragrance  from  the  new-mown  hay 
And  storing  it  in  flasks  of  petals  made, 
To  scent  the  air  when  all  the  flowers  fade 
And  leave  the  woodland  world  to  sad  decay. 

1  know  a  ivay 

Of  coaxing  snowflakes  in  their  flight  to  stay 
So  still  awhile,  that,  as  they  hang  in  air, 
I  weave  them  into  frosty  lace,  to  wear 
About  my  head  upon  a  sultry  day. 


THE    SONG   IN   THE   DELL  89 

Dorothy,  crouching  down  in  the  thicket,  listened  to 
this  little  song  with  great  delight;  but  she  was  ex- 
tremely sentimental  where  poetry  was  concerned,  and 
it  happened  that  when  she  heard  this  last  verse  she 
clasped  her  hands  in  a  burst  of  rapture  and  exclaimed 
in  quite  a  loud  voice,  "  Oh,  delicious ! "  This  was  very 
unfortunate,  for  the  song  stopped  short  the  instant  she 
spoke,  and  for  a  moment  everything  was  perfectly 
silent;  then  the  little  voice  spoke  up  again,  and  said, 
"  Who  is  that  ?  " 

"It  's  I,"  said  Dorothy. 

"It  's  two  eyes,  if  it  comes  to  that,"  said  the  little 
voice;  "I  can  see  them  through  the  bushes.  Are  you 
a  rabbit?" 

"  No,"  said  Dorothy,  laughing  softly  to  herself,  "  I  'm 
a  child." 

"Oh!"  exclaimed  the  voice.  It  was  a  very  little  Oh; 
in  fact,  it  sounded  to  Dorothy  as  if  it  might  be  about 
the  size  of  a  cherry-stone,  and  she  said  to  herself, 
"I  verily  believe  it  's  a  fairy,  and  she  certainly  can't 
be  a  bit  bigger  than  my  thumb — my  regular  thumb, 
I  mean,"  she  added,  holding  up  her  hand  and  looking 
at  the  size  of  it  with  great  contempt. 

Then  the  little  voice  spoke  up  again  and  said,  "And 
how  big  are  you?" 


90  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

"I  'm  about  three  inches  tall,"  said  Dorothy;  and 
she  was  so  excited  by  this  time  at  the  prospect  of 
seeing  a  real  live  fairy  for  the  first  time  in  her  life, 
that  she  felt  as  if  a  lot  of  flies  were  running  up  and 
down  on  the  back  of  her  neck. 

"Dear  me!"  exclaimed  the  little  voice,  expressing 
great  astonishment  in  its  small  way.  "Why,  there  's 
hardly  enough  of  you  to  put  in  a  corner." 

Dorothy  reflected  for  a  moment  and  then  called  out, 
"  But,  you  know,  that  depends  altogether  on  the  size  of 
the  corner." 

"  Oh,  110,  it  does  n't ! "  said  the  little  voice,  very  con- 
fidently. "All  corners  are  the  same  size  if  you  only 
get  close  enough  to  'em." 

"Dear  me!"  said  Dorothy  to  herself,  "how  very 
intelligent  she  is !  I  must  have  a  look  at  her " ; 
and,  pushing  the  leaves  gently  aside,  she  cautiously 
peeped  out. 

It  was  a  charming  little  dell,  carpeted  with  fine  moss, 
and  with  strange-looking  wild  flowers  and  tall  nod- 
ding grasses  growing  about  the  sides  of  it;  but,  to 
Dorothy's  astonishment,  the  fairy  proved  to  be  an 
extremely  small  field-mouse,  sitting  up  like  a  little 
pug-dog  and  gazing  attentively  at  the  thicket:  "and 


THE    SONG 


THE   DELL 


91 


/  think" — the  Mouse  went  on,  as  if  it  were  tired  of 
waiting  for  an  answer  to  its  last  remark — "  J  think  a 
child  should  be  six  inches  tall,  at  least." 

This  was  so  ridiculous  that  Dorothy  had  to  put  her 


'PUSHING  THE  LEAVES  GENTLY  ASIDE,  SHE  CAUTIOUSLY  PEEPED  OUT. 


hand  over  her  mouth  to  keep  from  screaming  with 
laughter.  "  Why,"  she  exclaimed,  "  I  used  to  be  " — and 
here  she  had  to  stop  and  count  up  on  her  fingers  as 


92  THE   ADMIRAL' 8   CARAVAN 

if  she  were  doing  a  sum — "I  used  to  be  eight  times  as 
big  as  that,  myself." 

"Tut,  tut!—"  said  the  Mouse,  and  the  "tuts" 
sounded  like  beads  dropping  into  a  pill-box — "tut, 
tut!  Don't  tell  me  such  rubbish!" 

"  Oh,  you  need  n't  tut  me,"  said  Dorothy.  "  It 's  the 
exact  truth." 

"Then  I  don't  understand  it,"  said  the  Mouse,  shak- 
ing its  head  in  a  puzzled  way.  "/  always  thought 
children  grew  the  other  way." 

"  Well,  you  see, — "  said  Dorothy,  in  her  old-fashioned 
way, — "you  see,  I  've  been  very  much  reduced."  (She 
thought  afterward  that  this  sounded  rather  as  if  she 
had  lost  all  her  property,  but  it  was  the  only  thing  she 
could  think  of  to  say  at  the  time.) 

"I  don't  see  it  at  all,"  said  the  Mouse,  fretfully,  "and 
what  's  more,  I  don't  see  you\  in  fact,  I  don't  think 
you  ought  to  be  hiding  in  the  bushes  and  chattering  at 
me  in  this  way." 

This  seemed  to  Dorothy  to  be  a  very  personal  re- 
mark, and  she  answered,  rather  indignantly,  "And  why 
not,  I  should  like  to  know?" 

"Because," — said  the  Mouse  in  a  very  superior  man- 
ner,— "because  little  children  should  be  seen  and  not 
heard." 


THE   SONG   IN   THE   DELL  93 

"Hoity-toity!"  said  Dorothy,  very  sharply.  (I  don't 
think  she  had  the  slightest  idea  of  what  this  meant, 
but  she  had  read  somewhere  in  a  book  that  it  was  an 
expression  used  when  other  persons  gave  themselves 
airs,  and  she  thought  she  would  try  the  effect  of  it  on 
the  Mouse.)  But,  to  her  great  disappointment,  the 


THE    HOUSE    LAMENTS. 


Mouse  made  no  reply  of  any  kind,  and  after  picking  a 
leaf  and  holding  it  up  to  its  eyes  for  a  moment,  as  if 
it  were  having  a  cry  in  its  small  way,  the  poor  little 
creature  turned  about  and  ran  into  the  thicket  at  the 
further  side  of  the  dell. 


94  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

Dorothy  was  greatly  distressed  at  this,  and,  jump- 
ing out  of  the  bushes  into  the  dell,  she  began  calling, 
"Mousie!  Mousie!  Come  back!  I  did  n't  mean  it, 
dear.  It  was  only  an  esperimeut."  But  there  was  no 
answer,  and,  stooping  down  at  the  place  where  the 
Mouse  had  disappeared,  she  looked  into  the  thicket. 
There  was  nothing  there  but  a  very  small  squirrel 
eating  a  nut;  and,  after  staring  at  her  for  a  moment 
in  great  astonishment,  he  threw  the  nut  in  her  face 
and  scampered  off  into  the  bushes. 

"Nice  manners,  upon  my  word!"  said  Dorothy,  in 
great  indignation  at  this  treatment,  and  then,  standing 
up,  she  gazed  about  the  dell  rather  disconsolately;  but 
there  was  no  living  thing  in  sight  except  a  fat  butter- 
fly lazily  swinging  up  and  down  on  a  blade  of  grass. 
Dorothy  touched  him  with  her  finger  to  see  if  he  were 
awake,  but  the  Butterfly  gave  himself  an  impatient 
shake,  and  said,  fretfully,  "Oh,  don't,"  and,  after  wait- 
ing a  moment,  to  be  sure  that  was  all  he  had  to  say, 
she  walked  mournfully  away  through  the  wood. 


CHAPTEE  VIII 

SOMETHING  ABOUT  THE  CAMEL 

THE  wood  was  n't  nearly  so  pleasant  now  as  it  had 
been  before,  and  Dorothy  was  quite  pleased  when,  after 
walking  a  little  way,  she  came  in  sight  again  of  the 
bank  covered  with  rocking-chairs,  and  running  up,  she 
hurried  through  the  little  door  into  the  toy-shop. 

Everything  was  just  as  she  had  left  it,  and  the  stream 
was  running  merrily  under  the  castle  bridge;  but  just 
as  she  was  going  by,  the  bridge  itself  began  hitching 
up  in  the  middle  and  pawing,  as  it  were,  at  the  banks 
of  the  stream  in  such  an  extraordinary  manner  that 
she  stopped  to  see  what  was  going  to  happen. 

"It  's  sure  to  be  something  wonderous,"  she  said  to 
herself,  as  she  stood  watching  it,  and  she  was  quite 
right  about  this,  for  the  bridge  presently  turned  into  a 
remarkably  spirited  rocking-horse  (dappled,  with  black 
spots  scattered  about),  and  after  rocking  back  and  forth 
once  or  twice,  as  if  to  be  sure  it  really  was  a  horse,  set- 
tled down  perfectly  still  as  if  it  never  expected  to  be 


96  THE  ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

anything  else.  In  fact,  with  the  exception  of  a  large 
fly,  about  as  big  as  one  of  Dorothy's  feet,  that  was 
buzzing  about,  everything  in  the  window  was  now  per- 
fectly quiet,  and  drawing  a  long  breath  of  relief,  she 
walked  away  through  the  shop. 

As  she  walked  along  on  the  shelf,  she  presently  came 
to  the  grocer's  shop  and  found  the  Caravan  sitting  in 


'AND   POUND   THE    CARAVAN    SITTING    IN    A    ROW    ON    A    LITTLE 
BENCH    AT    THE    1>OOK." 


SOMETHING   ABOUT    THE    CAMEL  97 

a  row  on  a  little  bench  at  the  door.  The  Admiral  had 
the  Camel  in  his  lap,  and  they  were  all  gazing  at  it 
with  an  air  of  extreme  solicitude.  It  was  a  frowsy 
little  thing  with  lumpy  legs  that  hung  down  in  a  dan- 
gling way  from  the  Admiral's  knees,  and  Sir  Walter 
was  busily  employed  trying  to  make  it  drink  some- 
thing out  of  a  bottle. 

"  What  are  you  giving  him  ? "  inquired  Dorothy, 
curiously. 

"Glue,"  said  the  Admiral,  promptly.  "He  needs  stif- 
fening up,  you  see." 

"  Goodness  gracious,  what  an  awful  dose ! "  said  Dor- 
othy, with  a  shudder. 

"  That  does  n't  make  any  difference  so  long  as  he 
won't  take  it,"  said  Sir  Walter;  and  here  he  flew 
into  a  tremendous  passion,  and  began  beating  the  Camel 
about  the  head  so  furiously  with  the  bottle  that 
Dorothy  cried  out,  "Here  —  stop  that  instantly!" 

"He  does  n't  mind  it  no  more  than  if  he  was  a  bol- 
ster," put  in  the  Highlander.  "  Set  him  up  again  and 
let  's  see  Vnm  fall  down,"  he  added,  rubbing  his  hands 
together  with  a  relish. 

"Indeed,  you  '11  do  nothing  of  the  sort,"  exclaimed 
Dorothy,  with  great  indignation ;  and,  snatching  the 


98  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

Camel  from  the  Admiral's  lap,  she  carried  him  into  the 
grocer's  shop  and  set  hi™  down  upon  the  floor.  The 
Camel  looked  about  for  a  moment  with  a  very  mourn- 
ful expression  on  his  face,  and  then  climbed  into  one 
of  the  drawers  that  was  standing  open,  and  pulled  it 
to  after  him  as  a  person  might  close  a  door,  and  Dor- 
othy, after  watching  this  remarkable  performance  with 
great  wonderment,  went  out  again. 

The  Caravan  had  lost  no  time,  and  were  standing 
on  the  bench,  putting  up  a  little  sign  on  the  front  of 
the  shop  with  "CAMEL  FOE  SALE"  on  it,  and  Dorothy, 
trying  not  to  laugh,  said,  "Is  this  your  shop?" 

"Yes,"  replied  the  Admiral,  with  an  important  air. 
"  The  grocer  's  been  sold  for  a  cook  because  he  had  an 
apron  on,  and  we  Ve  taken  the  business." 

"  What  are  you  going  to  keep  ? "  asked  Dorothy,  who 
was  vastly  amused  at  this  idea. 

"Why,  we  're  going  to  keep  the  shop,"  said  the  Ad- 
miral, climbing  down  from  the  bench  and  staring  at 
her  in  great  surprise. 

"But  you  must  certainly  keep  things  to  sell,"  said 
Dorothy. 

"  How  can  we  keep  things  if  we  sell  'em  ? "  inquired 
Sir  Walter 


SOMETHING   ABOUT    THE    CAMEL  99 

"Well,  you  can't  sell  anything  unless  you  keep  it  in 
the  shop,  you  know,"  persisted  Dorothy,  feeling  that 
she  was  somehow  or  other  getting  the  worst  of  the 
argument. 

"  Bosh  ! "  said  the  Admiral,  obstinately ;  "  you  can't 
keep  things  you  sell  —  that  is,"  he  added,  "not  unless 
your  customers  are  crazy";  and  with  this  remark  the 
Caravan  went  into  the  shop  and  shut  the  door  in 
Dorothy's  face,  as  if  she  was  n't  worth  talking  to  any 
longer. 

Dorothy  waited  for  a  moment  to  see  if  they  were 
coming  out  again,  and  then,  as  there  was  a  noise  in- 
side as  if  they  were  piling  up  the  drawers  against  the 
door  by  way  of  a  barricade,  she  walked  slowly  away 
through  the  toy-shop. 

She  had  had  such  a  variety  of  adventures  in  the 
shop  by  this  time  that  she  was  getting  quite  tired  of 
the  place,  and  she  was  walking  along  rather  disconso- 
lately, and  wishing  there  was  some  way  of  growing  to 
her  natural  size,  and  then  getting  back  again  to  poor 
old  Uncle  Porticle  and  the  Blue  Admiral  Inn,  when, 
as  she  went  around  the  corner  of  the  little  apothe- 
cary's shop,  she  came  suddenly  upon  Bob  Scarlet.  To 
her  great  surprise,  he  was  now  just  about  the  size  of 


100  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

an  ordinary  robin;  but  he  had  on  his  red  waistcoat, 
and  had  quite  as  important  an  air  as  ever,  and  he  was 
strolling  about  examining  the  various  toys,  and  putting 
down  the  price  of  everything  in  a  little  red  book,  as  if 
he  were  thinking  of  going  into  the  business  himself. 

"Now,  I  wonder  how  he  ever  got  to  be  that  size," 
thought  Dorothy,  as  she  hid  behind  a  little  pile  of 
lead-pencils  and  watched  him  over  the  top  of  them. 
"I  suppose  he  's  eaten  something,  or  drunk  some- 
thing, to  make  him  grow,  the  way  they  do  in  fairy 
stories;  because  the  Admiral  certainly  said  he  was  n't 
any  bigger  than  an  ant.  And,  oh!  I  wish  I  knew 
what  it  was,"  she  added,  mournfully,  as  the  tears  came 
into  her  eyes  at  the  thought  of  how  small  she  was, 
"I  wish  I  knew  what  it  was!" 

"If  I  was  n't  a  little  afraid  of  him,"  she  went  on, 
after  she  had  had  a  little  cry,  "I  'd  ask  him.  But 
likely  as  not  he  'd  peck  at  me  —  old  peck  jabber!"  and 
here  she  laughed  through  her  tears  as  she  thought  of 
the  Caravan  in  their  little  sunbonnets.  "Or  p'r'aps 
he  'd  snap  me  up !  I  've  often  heard  of  snapping 
people  up  when  they  asked  too  many  questions,  but 
seems  to  me  it  never  meant  anything  so  awful  as 
that  before";  and  she  was  rambling  on  in  this  way, 


SOMETHING    ABOUT    THE    CAMEL 


101 


laughing  and  crying  by  turns,  when  at  this  moment 
Bob  Scarlet  came  suddenly  upon  a  fine  brass  bird-cage, 
and,  after  staring  at  it  in  a  stupefied  way  for  an  in- 
stant, he  dropped  his  little  book,  with  an  appearance 
of  great  agitation, 
and  hurried  away 
without  so  much  as 
looking  behind  him. 
Dorothy  ran  after 
him,  carefully  keep- 
big  out  of  sight  in 
case  he  should  turn 
around,  and  as  she  - 
went  by  the  bird- 
cage she  saw  that 
it  was  marked  "PER- 

FECTLY     SECURE "     in 

large  letters.     "And 

that  's  what  took  the  conceit  out  of  you,  mister,"  she 

said,  laughing  to  herself,  and  hurried  along  after  the 

Robin. 

As  she  caught  sight  of  him  again  he  was  just  scur- 
rying by  the  grocer's  shop,  and  she  could  see  the  faces 
of  the  Caravan  watching  him,  over  the  top  of  a  little 


"  HE    DROPPED    HIS    LITTLE   BOOK,   WITH    AN 

APPEARANCE    OF   GREAT   AGITATION, 

AND   HURRIED    AWAY." 


102 


THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 


half-blind  in  the  window,  with  an  expression  of  the 
greatest  concern,  and  the  next  moment  a  door  at  the 
back  of  the  shop  opened  and  they  all  rushed  out. 
They  had  on  their  sunbonnets  and  shawls,  and  Doro- 
thy saw  that  the 
Admiral  was  car- 
rying the  Camel 
under  his  arm ;  but 
before  she  could 
say  a  word  to  them 
they  had  scampered 
away  and  were  out 
of  sight. 

By  this  time  the 
toy-shop  itself  was 
all  in  a  commo- 
tion. Dolls  were 

climbing  down  from  the  shelves  and  falling  over  each 
other;  the  big  marbles  had  in  some  way  got  out  of 
the  basket  and  were  rolling  about  in  all  directions; 
and  Dorothy  could  see  the  old  dame  at  the  further  end 
of  the  shop,  running  about  and  frantically  striking  at 
one  thing  after  another  with  her  spoon.  To  make 
matters  worse,  quite  a  little  army  of  tin  soldiers  sud- 
denly appeared,  running  confusedly  about,  with  the 


"  A  DOOR  AT  THE  BACK  OF  THE  SHOP  OPENED 
AND  THEY  ALL  RUSHED  ODT." 


SOMETHING    ABOUT   THE    CAMEL 


103 


drawers  from  the  little  grocer's  shop  upside  down  on 
their  heads,  and  all  calling  "  Fire ! "  at  the  top  of  their 
voices.  As  they  could  n't  see  where  anybody  was  go- 
ing, or  where  they  were  going  themselves,  it  made  the 
situation  very  desperate  indeed. 

Dorothy  was  frightened  almost  out  of  her  wits,  but 
she  ran  on  in  a  bewildered  sort  of  a  way,  dodging  the 
rolling  marbles  and  upsetting  the  dolls  and  the  sol- 
diers in  great  numbers,  until  she  fortunately  caught 
sight  of  the  little  rat-hole  of  a  door,  and,  rushing 
through  it,  she  hurried  down  the  bank,  knocking  the 
green  rocking-chairs  about  in  every  direction,  and  ran 
off  into  the  wood  as  fast  as  she  could  go. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  CAMEL'S  COMPLAINT 


DOROTHY  ran  along  until  she  thought  she  was  quite 
safe,  and  then  stopped  to  look  back  and  listen.  There 
was  a  confused  sound  of  shouts  and  cries  in  the  dis- 
tance, but  nothing  seemed  to  be  coming  after  her,  so, 
after  waiting  a  moment  to  get  her  breath,  she  walked 
quietly  away  through  the  wood. 

"What  a  scene  of  turmoil  it  was!"  she  said  to  her- 
self, (lou  see,  she  was  trying  to  express  herself  in  a 
very  dignified  and  composed  manner,  as  if  she  had  n't 
been  in  the  least  disturbed  by  what  had  happened.) 
"I  presume — "  she  went  on,  "I  presume  it  was  some- 
thing like  a  riot,  although  I  really  don't  see  what  it 
was  all  about.  Of  course  I  've  never  been  in  a  riot, 
but  if  it  's  anything  like  that,  I  shall  never  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  one";— which  certainly  was  a  very 
wise  resolution  for  a  little  girl  to  make;  but  as  Doro- 
thy was  always  making  wise  resolutions  about  things 


THE    CAMEL'S    COMPLAINT  105 

that  were  never  going  to  happen,  I  really  don't  think 
that  this  particular  one  was  a  matter  of  any  con- 
sequence. 

She  was  so  much  pleased  with  these  remarks  that 
she  was  going  on  to  say  a  number  of  very  fine  things, 
when  she  came  suddenly  upon  the  Caravan  hiding  be- 
hind a  large  tree.  They  were  sitting  in  a  little  bunch 
on  the  grass,  and,  as  Dorothy  appeared,  they  all  put  on 
an  appearance  of  great  unconcern,  and  began  staring 
up  at  the  branches  of  the  tree,  as  if  they  had  n't 
seen  her. 

"They  've  certainly  been  doing  something  they  're 
ashamed  of,"  she  said  to  herself,  "but  they  can't  de- 
ceive me  with  any  such  behavior  as  that"-,  and  just 
then  the  Admiral  pretended  he  had  just  caught  sight 
of  her  and  said,  with  a  patronizing  air,  "Ah!  How 
d'  ye  do1?  How  d'  ye  do?"  as  if  they  had  n't  met  for 
quite  a  while. 

"You  know  perfectly  well  how  I  do,  and  I  con- 
sider that  a  very  foolish  remark,"  replied  Dorothy, 
speaking  in  a  very  dignified  manner,  and  not  feeling 
at  all  pleased  with  this  reception ;  and  then  noticing 
that  Humphrey  was  nowhere  to  be  seen,  she  said 
severely,  "Where  's  your  Camel?" 


106  THE   ADMIRAL'S   CARAVAN 

"Camels  is  no  good,"  said  the  Admiral,  evasively. 
"Leastwise  he  was  n't." 

"Why  not?"  said  Dorothy.  She  said  this  very 
sternly,  for  she  felt  morally  certain  that  the  Admiral 
was  trying  to  conceal  something  from  her. 

"  Well,  you  see,"  said  the  Admiral,  uneasily,  "  he 
talked  too  much.  He  was  always  grumbling." 

"Grumbling  about  what?"  said  Dorothy. 

"Oh,  about  a  wariety  of  things,"  said  the  Admiral. 
"Meals  and  lodgings  and  all  that,  you  know.  I  used 
to  try  to  stop  him.  'Cammy,'  I  says — " 

"'Cammy'  is  short  for  camel,"  explained  Sir  Walter, 
and  Dorothy  laughed  and  nodded,  and  the  Admiral 
went  on — 

"'Cammy,'  I  says,  ' don't  scold  so  much';  but  lor!  I 
might  as  well  have  talked  to  a  turnpike-gate." 

"Better,"  put  in  Sir  Walter.  "That  shuts  up  some- 
tunes,  and  he  never  did." 

"Oh,  jummy!"  said  the  Highlander,  with  a  chuckle, 
"that  's  a  good  one!" 

"But  what  was  it  all  about?"  persisted  Dorothy. 

"You  tell  her,  Ruffles,"  said  the  Admiral. 

"  Well,"  said  Sir  Walter,  "  it  was  all  the  same  thing, 


THE    CAMEL'S    COMPLAINT  107 

over  and  over  again.    He  had  it  all  in  verses   so  he 
would  n't  forget  any  of  it.     It  went  like  this: 

"  Canary-birds  feed  on  sugar  and  seed, 

Parrots  have  crackers  to  crunch; 
And,  as  for  the  poodles,  they  tell  me  the  noodles 
Have  chickens  and  cream  for  their  lunch. 
But  there  's  never  a  question 
About  MY  digestion — 
ANYTHING  does  for  me  ! 

"Cats,  you  're  aware,  can  repose  in  a  chair, 

Chickens  can  roost  upon  rails; 
Puppies  are  able  to  sleep  in  a  stable, 
And  oysters  can  slumber  in  pails. 
But  no  one  supposes 
A  poor  Camel  dozes — 
ANY  PLACE  does  for  me ! 

a  Lambs  are  inclosed  where  it  's  never  exposed. 

Coops  are  constructed  for  hens ; 
Kittens  are  treated  to  houses  well  heated, 
And  pigs  are  protected  by  pens. 
But  a  Camel  comes  handy 
Wherever  it  Js  sandy — 
ANYWHEEE  does  for  me  ! 


108  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

"People  would  laugh  if  you  rode  a  giraffe, 

Or  mounted  the  back  of  an  ox; 
It  1s  nobody's  habit  to  ride  on  a  rabbit, 
Or  try  to  bestraddle  a  fox. 
But  as  for  a  Camel,  he  's 
Hidden  by  families — 
ANY  LOAD  does  for  me  ! 

11 A  snake  is  as  round  as  a  hole  in  the  ground, 

And  weasels  are  wavy  and  sleek; 
And  no  alligator  could  ever  be  straighter 
Than  lizards  that  live  in  a  creek. 
But  a  Camel's  all  lumpy 
And  bumpy  and  humpy — 
ANY  SHAPE  does  for  me!n 

Now,  Dorothy  was  a  very  tender-hearted  little  child, 
and  by  the  time  these  verses  were  finished  she  hardly 
knew  whether  to  laugh  or  to  cry.  "Poor  old,  feeble- 
minded thing!"  she  said,  compassionately.  "And  what 
became  of  him  at  last?" 

There  was  a  dead  silence  for  a  moment,  and  then 
the  Admiral  said  solemnly: 

"We  put  him  in  a  pond." 

"Why,  that  's  the  most  unhuman  thing  I  ever  heard 


THE    CAMEL'S    COMPLAINT 


109 


of  in  all  my  life!"  exclaimed  Dorothy,  greatly  shocked 
at  this  news. 

"Well,"  said  the  Admiral,  in  a  shamefaced   sort  of 


THE    CABAVAN    DISCIPLINE    THE    CAMEL. 


way,  "we  thought  it  was  a  good  thing  to  do — for  us, 
you  know." 

"And  /  call  it  proud  and  unforgiving,"  said   Doro- 


HO  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

thy,  indignantly.  "  Did  the  poor  creature  say  any- 
thing?" 

"Not  at  first,"  said  the  Admiral;  "but  after  he  got 
in  he  said  things." 

"Such  as  what?"  said  Dorothy. 

"Oh,  we  could  n't  make  out  what  he  said,"  replied 
the  Admiral,  peevishly.  "It  was  perfectly  unintellijib- 
bergibble." 

"Kind  of  gurgly,"  put  in  the  Highlander. 

"Did  he  go  right  down?"  inquired  Dorothy,  very 
anxiously. 

"Not  a  bit  of  it,"  said  the  Admiral,  flippantly. 
"He  never  went  down  at  all.  He  floated,  just  like  a 
cork,  you  know." 

"Round  and  round  and  round,"  added  Sir  Walter. 

"Like  a  turnip,"  put  in  the  Highlander. 

"What  do  you  mean  by  that?"  said  Dorothy, 
sharply. 

"Nothing,"  said  the  Highlander,  looking  very  much 
abashed;  "only  I  thought  turnips  turned  round." 

Dorothy  was  greatly  provoked  at  all  this,  and  felt 
that  she  really  ought  to  say  something  very  severe; 
but  the  fact  was  that  the  Caravan  looked  so  innocent, 
sitting  on  the  grass  with  their  sunbonnets  all  crooked 


THE    CAMEL'S    COMPLAINT  HI 

on  their  heads,  that  it  was  as  much  as  she  could  do 
to  keep  from  laughing  outright.  "You  know,"  she 
said  to  herself,  "if  it  was  n't  for  the  Highlander's 
whiskers,  it  'd  be  precisely  like  a'  infant  class  having 
a  picnic;  and  after  all,  they  're  really  nothing  but 
graven  images" — so  she  contented  herself  by  saying, 
as  severely  as  she  could: 

"Well,  I  'm  extremely  displeased,  and  I  'm  very 
much  ashamed  of  all  of  you." 

The  Caravan  received  this  reproof  with  great  cheer- 
fulness, especially  the  Admiral,  who  took  a  look  at 
Dorothy  through  his  spy-glass,  and  then  said  with 
much  satisfaction :  "  Now  we  're  each  being  ashamed 
of  by  three  persons";  but  Dorothy  very  properly  took 
no  notice  of  this  remark,  and  walked  away  in  a  dig- 
nified manner. 


CHAPTEK  X 

THE   SIZING   TOWER 

As  Dorothy  walked  along,  wondering  what  would 
happen  to  her  next,  she  felt  something  tugging  at  her 
frock,  and  looking  around  she  saw  that  it  was  the 
Highlander  running  along  beside  her,  quite  breathless, 
and  trying  very  hard  to  attract  her  attention.  "Oh, 
it  's  you,  is  it?"  she  said,  stopping  short  and  looking 
at  him  pleasantly. 

uYes,  it  's  me,"  said  the  Highlander,  sitting  down 
on  the  ground  as  if  he  were  very  much  fatigued 
"I  Ve  been  wanting  to  speak  to  you  privately  for  a 
very  long  time." 

"What  about?"  said  Dorothy,  wondering  what  was 
coming  now. 

"Well,"  said  the  Highlander,  blushing  violently  and 
appearing  to  be  greatly  embarrassed,  "you  seem  to  be 
a  very  kind-hearted  person,  and  I  wanted  to  show  you 
some  poetry  I  Ve  written." 

"Did  you  compose  it?"  said  Dorothy,  kindly. 


THE   SIZING    TOWER  113 

"No,"  said  the  Highlander;  "I  only  made  it  up. 
Would  you  like  to  hear  it$" 

"Oh,  yes,  indeed,"  said  Dorothy,  as  gravely  as  she 
could;  "I  should  like  to  hear  it  very  much." 

"It  's  called" — said  the  Highlander,  lowering  his 
voice  confidentially  and  looking  cautiously  about — 
"it  's  called  'The  Pickle  and  the  Policeman';"  and, 
taking  a  little  paper  out  of  his  pocket,  he  began : 

"  There  was  a  little  pickle  and  his  name  was  John  — " 

"Oh,  dear!"  exclaimed  Dorothy,  "I  don't  think  that 
will  do  at  all." 

"  Suppose  I  call  him  George  f "  said  the  Highlander, 
gazing  reflectively  at  his  paper.  "It  's  got  to  be  some- 
thing short,  you  know." 

"But  you  must  n't  call  him  anything"  said  Dorothy, 
laughing.  "Pickles  don't  have  any  names." 

"All  right,"  said  the  Highlander;  and,  taking  out  a 
pencil,  he  began  repairing  his  poetry  with  great  indus- 
try. He  did  a  great  deal  of  writing,  and  a  good  deal 
of  rubbing  out  with  his  thumb,  and  finally  said 
triumphantly : 

"  There  was  a  little  pickle  and  he  had  nH  any  name !  " 
w 


114  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

"Yes,  that  will  do  very  nicely,"  said  Dorothy;  and 
the  Highlander,  clearing  his  voice,  read  off  his  poetry 
with  a  great  flourish : 

"  There  was  a  little  pickle  and  he  had  ri*t  any  name — 
In  this  respect,  I  rm  just  informed,  all  pickles  are  the  same. 
A  large  policeman  came  along,  a-swinging  of  his  club, 
And  took  that  little  pickle  up  and  put  him  in  a  tub. 

"That  's  rather  good  about  taking  him  up,"  said  the 
Highlander,  chuckling  to  himself;  "so  exactly  like  a 
policeman,  you  know." 

"Oh,  yes,  indeed,"  said  Dorothy,  who  was  ready  to 
scream  with  laughter.  "What  's  the  rest  of  it?" 

"There  is  n't  any  more,"  said  the  Highlander,  rather 
confusedly.  "There  was  going  to  be  another  verse, 
but  I  could  n't  think  of  anything  more  to  say." 

"Oh,  well,  it  's  very  nice  as  it  is,"  said  Dorothy, 
consolingly;  and  then,  as  the  Highlander  put  up  his 
paper  and  went  away,  she  laughed  till  her  eyes  were 
full  of  tears.  "They  are  all  funny,"  she  said  at  last, 
as  she  walked  away  through  the  wood,  "but  I  think 
he  's  funnier  than  all  of  'em  put  together" — which, 
by  the  way,  was  not  a  very  sensible  remark  for  her  to 


THE   SIZING    TOWER 


115 


make,  as  you  will  see  if  you  11  take  the   trouble  to 
think  it  over. 

But  presently,  as  she  strolled  along,  she  made  a  dis- 
covery that  quite  drove  the  Highlander  and  his  ridicu- 


•••  THERE   IS   N'T   ANT   MORE,'    SAID   THE   HIGHLANDER,   RATHER   CONFUSEDLY." 

lous  poetry  out  of  her  head.  It  was  a  tower  in  the 
wood;  not  an  ordinary  tower,  of  course,  for  there 
would  have  been  nothing  remarkable  about  that,  but 
a  tower  of  shining  brass,  and  so  high  that  the  top  of 


116  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

it  was  quite  out  of  sight  among  the  branches  of  the 
trees.  But  the  strangest  thing  about  it  was  that  there 
seemed  to  be  no  possible  way  of  getting  into  it,  and 
Dorothy  was  very  cautiously  walking  around  it  to  see 
if  she  could  find  any  door  when  she  came  suddenly 
upon  the  Caravan  standing  huddled  together,  and 
apparently  in  a  state  of  great  excitement. 

"What  is  it?"  asked  Dorothy,  eagerly. 

"Hush!"  said  the  Admiral,  in  an  agitated  whisper. 
"We  think  it  's  where  Bob  Scarlet  changes  himself" — 
and  as  he  said  this  there  was  a  tremendous  flapping 
of  wings,  and  down  came  Bob  Scarlet  through  the 
branches  and  landed  with  a  thump  a  little  way  from 
where  they  were  standing.  He  was  as  big  as  a  goose 
again,  and  his  appearance  was  so  extremely  formidable 
that  the  Caravan,  as  one  man,  threw  themselves  flat 
on  their  faces  in  a  perfect  frenzy  of  terror,  and  Dor- 
othy herself  hid  in  the  grass,  with  her  heart  beating 
like  a  little  eight-day  clock.  But  Bob  Scarlet  fortu- 
nately paid  no  more  attention  to  any  of  them  than  if 
they  had  been  so  many  flies,  and,  after  strutting  about 
for  a  moment  with  his  usual  important  air,  strolled 
away  in  the  direction  of  the  toy-shop. 

"Now  what  do  you  make  of  that?'"  said  the  Admiral, 


THE    SIZING    TOWER  117 

lifting  up  his  head.  "He  went  in  at  a  little  door 
not  five  minutes  ago,  and  he  was  n't  any  bigger  than 
an  every-day  bird." 

"I  'm  sure  I  don't  know  what  to  make  of  it,"  said 
Dorothy.  "But  where  is  the  door?"  she  added,  run- 
ning around  the  tower  and  looking  at  it  on  all  sides. 

"It  went  up  after  him,"  said  the  Admiral,  "like  a 
corkscrew." 

"And  it  's  coming  down  again,  like  a  gimlet!" 
shouted  the  Highlander;  and,  as  they  all  looked  up, 
sure  enough  there  was  the  little  door  slowly  coming 
down,  around  and  around,  as  if  it  were  descending  an 
invisible  staircase  on  the  outside  of  the  tower.  They 
all  watched  this  performance  with  much  interest,  and 
as  the  door  touched  the  ground  it  opened,  and,  to 
Dorothy's  amazement,  out  came  the  little  field-mouse. 

"What  is  it?"  cried  Dorothy,  as  they  all  crowded 
around  the  little  creature.  "Do  tell  us  what  it  all 
means." 

"It  's  a  Sizing  Tower,"  said  the  Mouse,  its  little 
voice  trembling  with  agitation.  "You  get  big  at  the 
top,  and  little  at  the  bottom.  I  would  n't  go  up  there 
again — not  for  a  bushel  of  nuts." 

"Were  you  pretty  big?"  inquired  Sir  Walter. 


118  THE   ADMIRAL'S   CARAVAN 

"Monstrous!"  said  the  Mouse,  with  a  little  shudder; 
"I  was  as  big  as  a  squirrel;  and  while  I  was  up  there, 
Bob  Scarlet  flew  up  and  came  down  with  the  door, 
and  there  I  was." 

"That  was  a  precious  mess!"  remarked  the  High- 
lander. 

"Was  n't  it  now!"  said  the  Mouse.  "And  if  he 
had  n't  taken  it  into  his  head  to  come  up  again  and 
fly  down,  I  'd  'a'  been  there  yet." 

"Why,  it  's  the  very  thing  for  us!"  cried  Dorothy, 
clapping  her  hands  with  delight  as  a  happy  thought 
occurred  to  her.  "Let  's  all  go  up  and  get  back  our 
regular  selves." 

"You  go  first,"  said  the  Admiral,  suspiciously,  "and 
call  down  to  us  how  it  feels."  But  Dorothy  would  n't 
hear  of  this;  and  after  a  great  deal  of  arguing  and 
pushing  and  saying  "You  go  in  first,"  the  whole  party 
at  last  got  squeezed  in  through  the  little  doorway. 
Then  the  Mouse  sat  up  on  its  hind  legs  and  waved 
a  little  farewell  with  its  paws,  and  the  door  softly 
closed. 

"If  we  begin  to  grow  now"  said  the  Admiral's  voice 
in  the  dark,  "we  '11  all  be  squeegeed,  sure!'1'1 


THE    SIZING    TOWER  119 

"What  an  extraordinary  thing!"  exclaimed  Dorothy; 
for  they  had  come  out  into  a  street  full  of  houses. 

"What  I  want  to  know  is  what  's  become  of  the 
door,"  said  Sir  Walter,  indignantly,  staring  at  a  high 
wall  where  the  door  had  been,  and  which  was  now 
perfectly  blank. 

"I  'm  sure  I  don't  know,"  said  Dorothy,  quite  bewil- 
dered. "It  's  really  quite  mysterious,  is  n't  it?" 

"It  makes  my  stomach  tickle  like  anything,"  said 
the  Highlander,  in  a  quavering  voice. 

"What  shall  we  do?"  said  Dorothy,  looking  about 
uneasily. 

"Run  away!"  said  the  Admiral,  promptly;  and 
without  another  word  the  Caravan  took  to  their  heels 
and  disappeared  around  a  corner.  Dorothy  hurried 
after  them,  but  by  the  tune  she  turned  the  corner 
they  were  quite  out  of  sight;  and  as  she  stopped  and 
looked  about  her  she  discovered  that  she  was  once 
more  in  the  Ferryman's  street,  and,  to  her  great  de- 
light, quite  as  large  as  she  had  been  when  she  left 
the  Blue  Admiral  Inn. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE    DANCING    ANIMALS 

IT  seemed  to  be  evening  again,  and,  although  the 
Ferryman  was  nowhere  in  sight,  Dorothy  knew  the 
place  the  moment  she  looked  up  and  saw  the  peaked 
roofs  outlined  against  the  sky.  The  houses  were 
quaint,  old-fashioned-looking  buildings  with  the  up- 
per parts  jutting  far  out  beyond  the  lower  stories 
and  with  dark  little  doorways  almost  hidden  in  the 
shadows  beneath;  and  the  windows  were  very  small 
casements  filled  with  diamond-shaped  panes  of  shining 
green  glass.  All  the  houses  were  brilliantly  lighted  up, 
and  there  were  great  iron  lamps  swung  on  chains 
across  the  street,  so  that  the  street  itself  was  almost 
as  bright  as  day,  and  Dorothy  thought  she  recognized 
it  as  a  place  she  had  once  read  about  where  nobody 
but  astrologers  lived.  There  was  a  confused  sound  of 
fiddling  going  on  somewhere,  and  as  Dorothy  walked 
along  she  could  hear  a  scuffling  noise  inside  the 
houses  as  if  the  inhabitants  were  dancing  about  on 


THE   DANCING   ANIMALS  121 

sanded  floors.  Presently,  as  she  turned  a  corner,  she 
came  upon  a  number  of  storks  who  were  dancing  a 
sort  of  solemn  quadrille  up  and  down  the  middle  of 
the  street.  They  stopped  dancing  as  she  came  along, 
and  stood  in  a  row  gazing  gravely  at  her  as  she 
passed  by  and  then  resumed  their  quadrille  as  sol- 
emnly as  before. 

The  strangest  thing  about  the  fiddling  was  that  it 
seemed  to  be  going  on  somewhere  in  the  air,  and 
the  sound  appeared  to  come  from  all  directions  at 
once.  At  first  the  music  was  soft  and  rather  slow 
in  time,  but  it  grew  louder  and  louder,  and  the  fid- 
dles played  faster  and  faster,  until  presently  they 
were  going  at  such  a  furious  rate  that  Dorothy 
stopped  and  looked  back  to  see  how  the  storks  were 
getting  on  in  their  dancing;  and  she  could  see  them 
in  the  distance,  scampering  up  and  down  the  street, 
and  bumping  violently  against  one  another  in  a  fran- 
tic attempt  to  keep  time  with  the  music.  At  any 
other  time  she  would  have  been  vastly  amused  at 
this  spectacle ;  but  just  then  she  was  feeling  a  little 
afraid  that  some  of  the  astrologers  might  come  out 
to  see  what  was  going  on,  and  she  was  therefore 
quite  relieved  when  the  storks  presently  gave  up  all 


122  THE   ADMIRAL'S   CARAVAN 

hope  of  finishing  their  quadrille,  and  rising  in  the  air 
with  a  tremendous  flapping  of  wings,  flew  away  over 
the  tops  of  the  houses  and  disappeared.  Strangely 
enough,  the  sound  of  the  fiddling  followed  them  like 
a  traveling  band,  and  grew  fainter  and  fainter  until  it 
finally  died  away  in  the  distance. 

But  the  scuffling  noise  in  the  houses  continued,  and 
Dorothy  did  just  what  you  'd  suppose  such  a  curious 
little  child  would  have  done — that  is,  she  stole  up 
and  peeped  in  at  one  of  the  windows;  but  she  could 
see  nothing  through  the  thick  glass  but  some  strange- 
looking  shadows  bobbing  confusedly  about  inside.  Of 
course  you  know  what  she  did  then.  In  fact,  after 
hesitating  a  moment,  she  softly  opened  the  door  of 
the  house  and  went  in. 

The  room  was  full  of  animals  of  every  description, 
dancing  around  in  a  ring  with  the  greatest  enthusi- 
asm ;  and  as  Dorothy  appeared  they  all  shouted, 
"Here  she  is!"  and,  before  she  could  say  a  single 
word,  the  two  nearest  to  her  (they  were  an  elephan; 
and  a  sheep,  by  the  way)  seized  her  by  the  hands, 
and  the  next  moment  she  was  dancing  in  the  ring. 
She  was  quite  surprised  to  see  that  the  elephant  was 
no  bigger  than  the  sheep;  and,  as  she  looked  about, 


THE   DANCING   ANIMALS 


123 


it  seemed  to  her,  in  the  confusion,  that  all  the  animals 
in  the  room  were  of  precisely  the  same  size. 

"Is  n't  it  rather  unusual — "   she  said  to  the  Sheep 
fit   seemed   more   natural,   somehow,   to   speak   to   the 


"  AN   ELEPHANT    AND    A    SHEEP   SEIZED    HER   BY   THE    HANDS,  AND    THE    NEXT 
MOMENT   SHE   WAS    DANCING    IN    THE    RING." 


Sheep) — "is  n't  it  rather  unusual  for  different  animals 
to  be  so  much  alike?" 

"Not  in  our  set,"  said  the  Sheep,  conceitedly.  "We 
all  know  who  's  who.  Of  course  we  have  to  mark 
the  pigs,  as  they  're  so  extremely  like  the  polar- 
bears;"  and  Dorothy  noticed  that  two  pigs,  who  were 


124  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

dancing  just  opposite  to  her,  had  labels  with  "PIG" 
on  them  hung  around  their  necks  by  little  chains,  as 
if  they  had  been  a  couple  of  decanters — "only,"  she 
thought,  "it  would  have  been  'SHERRY'  or  *  MADEIRA.' 
instead  of  'PIG,'  you  know." 

"I  suppose  you  all  came  out  of  a  Noah's  Ark,"  she 
said  presently,  at  a  venture. 

"Of  course.  Largest  size,  I  believe.  How  very 
clever  you  are!"  said  the  Sheep,  admiringly.  "By  the 
way,"  she  added,  confidentially,  "  do  you  happen  to 
know  what  a  tapir  is?" 

"I  believe  it  's  something  to  light,  like  a  candle," 
said  Dorothy. 

"Does  it  ever  go  out  of  its  own  accord?"  inquired 
the  Sheep. 

"It  ought  not  to,"  said  Dorothy. 

"Then  that  accounts  for  the  trouble  we  've  had," 
said  the  Sheep,  with  a  satisfied  air.  "Those  two  tapirs 
dancing  over  there  are  always  in  everybody's  way,  and 
we  Ve  had  to  put  them  out  over  and  over  again." 

This  sounded  like  a  joke ;  but  the  Sheep  was  so 
serious  that  Dorothy  did  n't  dare  to  laugh,  so  she 
said,  by  way  of  continuing  the  conversation,  "I  don't 
see  any  birds  here." 


THE   DANCING   ANIMALS  125 

"Oh  dear,  no!"  exclaimed  the  Sheep;  "you  see, 
this  is  really  a  quadrupedrille  Of  course  you  're  all 
right,  because  it  's  precisely  as  if  you  were  dancing  on 
your  hind  feet.  In  fact,"  she  added,  nodding  approv- 
ingly, "you  look  almost  as  well  as  if  you  were." 

"Thank  you!"  said  Dorothy,  laughing. 

"There  was  a  seal  that  wanted  to  join,"  the  Sheep 
went  on.  "He  pressed  us  very  hard,  but  he  never 
made  the  slightest  impression  on  us;"  and  there  was 
a  twinkle  in  the  Sheep's  eyes  as  she  said  this,  so  that 
Dorothy  felt  morally  certain  it  was  a  joke  this  tune; 
but,  before  she  could  make  any  reply,  the  Elephant 
called  out  "  Recess ! "  and  the  animals  all  stopped 
dancing  and  began  walking  about  and  fanning  them- 
selves with  little  portfolios  which  they  produced  in 
such  a  mysterious  manner  that  Dorothy  could  n't  see 
where  in  the  world  they  came  from. 

"Now,  look  here,"  said  the  Elephant, — he  seemed  to 
be  a  sort  of  Master  of  Ceremonies,  and  the  animals  all 
clustered  about  him  as  he  said  this, — "why  can't  she 
dance  with  the  Camel?"  and  he  pointed  out  Dorothy 
with  his  portfolio. 

"She  can!"  shouted  the  animals  in  chorus.  "Come 
on,  Sarah!" — and  the  Camel,  who  had  been  moping  in 


126  THE   ADMIRAL'S   CARAVAN 

a  corner  with  her  head  against  the  wall,  came  forward 
with  a  very  sulky  expression  on  her  face. 

"Her  name  is  Sahara,"  whispered  the  Sheep,  pluck- 
ing at  Dorothy's  frock  to  attract  her  attention,  "hut 
we  caU  her  Sarah  to  save  time.  She  's  kind  of 
grumpy  now  because  the  other  Camel  stayed  away, 
but  she  '11  titter  like  a  turtle  when  she  gets  to 
dancing." 

"I  don't  know  what  relation  she  is  to  Humphrey," 
thought  Dorothy,  as  the  Camel  took  her  by  the  hand, 
"but  she  's  certainly  big  enough  to  be  his  great-grand- 
mother ten  times  over."  Before  she  had  time  to  think 
any  more  about  it,  however,  the  Elephant  called  out, 
"Ladies  change!"  and  the  dancing  began  again  harder 
than  ever. 

It  was  a  very  peculiar  dance  this  time,  and,  as  near 
as  Dorothy  could  make  it  out,  consisted  principally  in 
the  animals  passing  her  along  from  one  to  another  as 
if  they  were  each  anxious  to  get  rid  of  her;  and  pres- 
ently she  discovered  that,  in  some  unaccountable  man- 
ner, she  had  been  passed  directly  through  the  fireplace 
into  the  next  house;  but  as  this  house  was  quite  as 
full  of  dancing  animals  as  the  other,  this  did  n't  help 
matters  much  except  that  it  got  Sarah  out  of  the 


THE   DANCING   ANIMALS 


127 


way — "and  that,"  said  poor  little  Dorothy  to  herself, 
"is  certainly  something!" 
Just  then  the  Elephant,  who  had  mysteriously  ap- 


THE   ANIMALS    CROSSING   OVER. 


peared  from  a  pantry  in  one  corner  of  the  room, 
shouted  out,  "All  cross  over!"  and  the  animals  began 
to  crowd  out  of  the  house  into  the  courtyard,  and 


128  THE  ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

then,  pushing  in  great  confusion  through  a  large  gate- 
way, rushed  across  the  street  and  into  the  house  on 
the  other  side  of  the  way.  Dorothy  was  quite  taken 
off  her  feet  in  the  rush,  but,  watching  her  chance, 
she  hid  behind  a  large  churn  that  was  standing  con- 
veniently in  the  middle  of  the  street;  and  when  they 
had  all  passed  in,  she  ran  away  down  the  street  as 
fast  as  she  could  go. 

She  ran  on  until  she  had  got  quite  out  of  the 
Ferryman's  street,  and  was  walking  along  in  the  open 
country,  feeling  quite  pleased  with  herself  for  having 
so  cleverly  escaped  from  the  dancing-party  without 
having  to  take  the  trouble  of  saying  "Good  night"  to 
the  Elephant,  when  she  saw,  in  the  moonlight,  some- 
thing white  lying  beside  the  road,  and  going  up  to  it, 
*rxe  discovered  it  was  a  letter. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE    CARAVAN    COMES    HOME 

THE  letter  was  lying  on  a  flat  stone,  with  several 
lumps  of  sugar  laid  on  it  like  paper-weights  to  keep  it 
from  blowing  away.  It  was  n't  at  all  a  nice-looking 
letter;  in  fact,  it  looked  as  if  it  had  been  dragged 
over  the  ground  for  a  long  distance;  and  Dorothy, 
after  observing  all  this,  was  just  turning  away  when 
she  chanced  to  look  at  the  address  and  saw  that  the 
letter  was  intended  for  her.  The  address  was  writ- 
ten in  a  very  cramped  little  hand,  and  the  writing 
was  crowded  up  into  one  corner  as  if  it  were  trying 
to  get  over  the  edge  of  the  envelope;  but  the  words 
were  "To  DOROTHY,"  as  plain  as  possible. 

"What  a  very  strange  thing!"  she  said  to  herself, 
taking  up  the  letter  and  turning  it  over  several  times 
rather  distrustfully.  "I  don't  think  it  looks  very  nicet 
but  it  may  be  something  important,  and  I  s'pose  I 
ought  to  read  it";  and  saying  this,  she  opened  the 


130  THE   ADMIRAL' 8    CARAVAN 

letter.    It  was  printed  in  funny  little  letters  something 
like  bird-tracks,  and  this  was  what  was  in  it: 

We  are  in  a  bad  fix.  The  fix  is  a  cage.  We  have  been 
seeded  in  a  outburst  of  ungovernerubble  fury  by  Bob  Scarlet. 
He  says  there  Js  been  too  many  robbin  pies.  He  goes  on, 
and  says  he  is  going  to  have  a  girl  pie.  With  gravy.  We 
shreeked  out  that  we  was  n't  girls.  Only  disgized  and  tuff 
as  anything.  He  says  with  a  kurdling  laff  we  HI  do.  0  save 
us.  We  wish  we  was  home.  There  is  no  male  and  we  send 
this  by  a  noble  rat.  He  is  a  female. 

THE  CARAVAN. 

"Now,  that  's  the  most  ridiculous  letter  I  ever  got," 
said  Dorothy,  gazing  at  it  in  blank  astonishment; 
"and  I  don't  think  it  's  spelled  very  well  either,"  she 
added  rather  doubtfully  as  she  read  it  again ;  "  but  of 
course  I  must  go  and  help  the  poor  little  creatures.  I 
ought  to  feel  frightened,  but  I  really  feel  as  brave  as 
an  ox.  I  s'pose  that  's  because  I  'm  going  to  help  the 
unfortunate";  and  putting  the  letter  in  her  pocket, 
she  started  off. 

"It  's  perfectly  surprising,"  she  said  to  herself  as 
she  ran  along,  "the  mischief  they  get  into!  They  *re 
really  no  more  fit  to  be  going  about  alone  than  so 


THE    CARAVAN   COMES  HOME  131 

many  infants";  and  she  was  so  pleased  with  herself 
for  saying  this  that  she  began  to  feel  quite  large  and 
bold.  "But  it  was  very  clever  of  'em  to  think  of  the 
rat,"  she  went  on,  "and  of  course  that  accounts  for 
the  sugar.  No  one  but  a  rat  would  ever  have  thought 
of  using  sugar  for  paper-weights.  If  I  was  n't  afraid 
of  a  rat  I  'd  wish  it  had  n't  gone  away,  though,  for 
I  have  n't  the  slightest  idea  where  the  Caravan  is,  or 
which  way  I  ought  to  go." 

But  it  presently  appeared  that  the  noble  rat  had 
arranged  the  whole  matter  for  her;  for  as  Dorothy 
ran  along  she  began  to  find  lumps  of  sugar  set  up  at 
intervals  like  little  mile-stones,  so  that  she  should  n't 
miss  the  road. 

"It  's  precisely  like  Hop-o'-my-thumb  and  his  little 
crumbs  of  bread,"  she  said,  laughing  to  herself  when 
she  saw  these,  "only  better,  because,  you  see,  the 
birds  can't  carry  them  off." 

The  rat,  however,  seemed  to  have  had  a  very 
roundabout  idea  of  a  road,  for  the  lumps  of  sugar 
were  scattered  zigzag  in  every  direction,  and,  at  one 
place,  led  directly  through  a  knot-hole  in  a  fence  as  if 
nobody  could  possibly  have  any  trouble  in  getting 
through  that;  but,  as  the  little  mile-stones  appeared 


132  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

again  on  the  other  side  of  the  fence,  Dorothy  scram- 
bled over  and  ran  on.  Then  she  found  herself 
climbing  over  rocks  and  wading  through  little  puddles 
of  water  where  the  sugar  was  set  up  on  stones  in 
the  most  thoughtful  way,  so  that  it  should  n't  melt; 
and  in  another  place  the  lumps  were  stuck  up  in  a 
line  on  the  trunk  of  a  large  tree,  and,  after  leading 
the  way  through  a  number  of  branches,  suddenly  de- 
scended on  the  opposite  side  of  the  tree  into  a  little 
bog,  where  Dorothy  stuck  fast  for  several  minutes  and 
got  her  shoes  very  much  soiled.  All  this  was  very 
provoking,  and  she  was  beginning  to  get  a  little  out 
of  patience,  when  the  lumps  of  sugar  suddenly  came 
to  an  end  at  a  small  stone  wall ;  and,  looking  over  it, 
she  spied  the  Caravan  in  their  cage. 

The  cage  proved  to  be  an  enormous  rat-trap,  and 
the  Caravan,  with  remarkable  presence  of  mind,  had 
put  their  legs  through  between  the  wires  at  the  bot- 
tom of  it,  and  were  walking  briskly  along,  holding  up 
the  cage  with  their  hands.  The  news  of  this  extraor- 
dinary performance  had  evidently  been  spread  abroad, 
as  the  Ferryman  and  a  number  of  serious-looking 
storks  were  escorting  the  Caravan  with  an  air  of 
great  interest,  and  occasionally  taking  to  their  heels 


THE    CARAVAN   COMES   HOME  133 

when  the  Admiral  chanced  to  look  at  them  through 
the  wires  with  his  spy-glass.  There  was  a  door,  to 
be  sure,  in  the  side  of  the  trap,  quite  big  enough 
for  the  Admiral,  and  Sir  Walter,  and  the  Highlander 
to  come  out  of,  all  in  a  row  if  they  liked,  but  they 
evidently  had  n't  noticed  this —  "and  I  'm  not 
going  to  tell  'em  about  it,  just  yet,"  said  Dorothy 
to  herself,  "because  they  deserve  to  be  punished  for 
their  capers.  But  it  's  really  quite  clever  of  'em  to 
put  their  little  legs  through  in  that  way,"  she  went 
on,  "and  extremely  convenient  —  that  is,  you  know," 
she  added  thoughtfully,  "so  long  as  they  all  want  to 
go  the  same  way " ;  and,  with  this  wise  reflection,  she 
scrambled  over  the  wall  and  ran  after  the  procession. 
The  Admiral  and  Sir  Walter  seemed  greatly  morti- 
fied when  Dorothy  appeared,  and  she  saw  that  Sir 
Walter  was  making  a  desperate  attempt  to  pull  up 
his  legs  into  the  cage  as  if  he  had  n't  anything 
whatever  to  do  with  the  affair.  The  Highlander,  how- 
ever, who  always  seemed  to  have  peculiar  ideas  of  his 
own,  shouted  out  "Philopene!"  as  he  caught  sight  of 
her,  and  then  laughed  uproariously  as  if  this  were  the 
finest  joke  in  the  world;  but  Dorothy,  very  properly, 
took  not  the  slightest  notice  of  his  remark. 


134  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

"How  did  you  ever  get  into  this  scrape?"  said  she, 
addressing  the  Admiral  as  the  head  of  the  family. 

"It  was  easy  enough  to  get  into,"  said  the  Admiral, 
peevishly;  "we  just  fell  into  it  through  the  hole  in 
the  top.  But  there  was  n't  any  scrape  about  it  until 
we  tried  to  get  out  again.  Then  we  got  scraped  like 
anything." 

"Needles  was  nothing  to  it,"  added  Sir  Walter, 
solemnly. 

"Nor  cats,"  put  in  the  Highlander. 

"  I  'm  very  sorry,"  said  Dorothy,  compassionately ; 
"and  are  you  really  going  to  be  made  into  a  pie?" 

"  Oh,  dear,  no  ! "  said  the  Admiral.  "  We  got  ex- 
cused." 

"  Excused  ?  "  exclaimed  Dorothy,  very  much  surprised. 

"Well,  it  was  something  like  that,"  said  Sir  Walter, 
confusedly.  "You  see,  Bob  Scarlet  did  n't  exactly  like 
to  come  in  here  after  us — " 

"  Unconquerabubble  awersion  to  cages,"  explained 
the  Admiral. 

"And  so  he  goes  off  after  hooks  to  pull  us  out 
with,"  continued  Sir  Walter  — 

"And  we  inwents  this  way  of  going  about,  and 
comes  away!"  added  the  Admiral  triumphantly. 


THE    CARAVAN    COMES   HOME 


135 


"And  where  are  you  going  now?"  said  Dorothy; 
for  by  this  time  they  were  running  so  fast  that  she 
could  hardly  keep  up  with  them. 

"We  're    going   to    the    Ferry,"  said   the    Admiral, 


"BY   THIS   TIME   THEY   WERE   RUNNING   SO   FAST  THAT   SHE   COULD   HARDLY 
KEEP   UP   WITH   THEM." 


"and  these  pelicans  are  showing  us  the  way";  and  as. 
he  said  this  the  whole  party  hurried  through  a  little 
archway  and  came  out  at  the  waterside. 

An  old  stage-coach  without  any  wheels  was  floating 
close    up    against    the    river-bank,    and    quite    a    little 


136  THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 

party  of  the  dancing  animals  was  crowding  aboard  of 
it,  pushing  and  shoving  one  another,  and  all  talking 
in  the  most  excited  manner;  and  as  Dorothy  found 
herself  next  to  her  old  friend  the  Sheep,  in  the 
crowd,  she  inquired  anxiously,  "Where  are  you  all 
going?" 

"We  don't  know  exactly,"  said  the  Sheep,  "but 
we  Ve  all  taken  tickets  to  different  places  so  as  to  be 
sure  of  getting  somewhere";  and  with  this  remark  the 
Sheep  disappeared  in  the  crowd,  leaving  Dorothy  very 
much  bewildered. 

By  this  time  the  Caravan  had,  by  great  exertions, 
climbed  up  on  top  of  the  coach  and  were  sitting 
there  in  the  cage,  as  if  it  had  been  a  sort  of  cupola 
for  purposes  of  observation;  and,  indeed,  the  Admiral 
was  already  quite  absorbed  in  taking  in  various  points 
of  interest  with  his  glass.  The  storks,  meanwhile,  had 
crowded  into  the  coach  after  the  animals,  and  had 
their  heads  out  through  all  the  windows  as  if  there 
were  no  room  for  them  inside.  This  gave  the  coach 
somewhat  the  appearance  of  a  large  chicken-coop  with 
too  many  chickens  in  it;  and  as  Dorothy  did  n't  fancy 
a  crowd,  she  climbed  up  on  the  box.  As  she  did  so, 
Sarah,  the  Camel,  put  her  head  out  of  the  front 


THE    CARAVAN   COMES   HOME  137 

window  and,  laying  it  in  Dorothy's  lap,  murmured, 
"  Good-evening,"  and  went  comfortably  to  sleep.  The 
next  moment  the  fiddles  in  the  air  began  playing 
again  and  the  stage-coach  sailed  away. 

Dorothy  never  knew  exactly  what  happened  next, 
because  everything  was  so  confused.  She  had  an  idea, 
however,  that  they  were  all  singing  the  Ferry  Song, 
and  that  they  had  just  got  to  a  new  part,  beginning — 

"It  pours  into  picnics  and  swishes  the  dishes,1* 

when  a  terrible  commotion  began  on  top  of  the  coach, 
and  she  saw  that  Bob  Scarlet  had  suddenly  appeared 
inside  the  cage  without  Ms  waistcoat,  and  that  the  Cara- 
van were  frantically  squeezing  themselves  out  between 
the  wires.  At  the  same  moment  a  loud  roaring  sound 
arose  in  the  air,  and  the  quadrupeds  and  the  storks 
began  jumping  out  of  the  windows  in  all  directions. 
Then  the  stage-coach  began  to  rock  violently,  and 
she  felt  that  it  was  about  to  roll  over,  and  clutched 
at  the  neck  of  the  Camel  to  save  herself;  but  the 
Camel  had  slipped  away,  and  she  found  she  had  hold 
of  something  like  a  soft  cushion — and  the  next  mo- 
ment the  coach  went  over  with  a  loud  crash. 


138 


THE  ADMIRAL'S   CARAVAN 


Dorothy    gave    a    little    scream   as    the   coach   went 
over,  and  then  held  her  breath;  hut  instead  of  sous- 


"IT   8LOWLT   CHANGED   TO   A    BIRD-CAGE   WITH   A    ROBIN   SITTING   IN   IT." 

ing  into  the  water  as  she  expected,  she  came  down  on 
top  of  it  with  a  hard  bump,  and,  very  much  to  her 
astonishment,  found  herself  sitting  up  on  a  carpeted 


THE    CARAVAN   COMES   HOME  139 

floor.  For  a  moment  the  rat-trap,  with  Bob  Scarlet 
inside  of  it,  seemed  to  be  floating  around  in  the  air 
like  a  wire  balloon,  and  then,  as  she  nibbed  her  eyes 
and  looked  again,  it  slowly  changed  into  a  bird-cage 
with  a  fat  robin  sitting  in  it  on  a  perch,  and  peering 
sharply  at  her  sideways  with  one  of  his  bright  little 
eyes;  and  she  found  she  was  sitting  on  the  floor  of 
the  little  parlor  of  the  Blue  Admiral  Inn,  with  her 
little  rocking-chair  overturned  beside  her  and  the 
cushion  firmly  clutched  in  her  hand.  The  coach,  and 
the  dancing  animals,  and  the  Ferryman  and  his  storks 
had  all  disappeared,  which  was  a  very  fortunate  thing,  as 
there  was  n't  room  for  them  in  the  parlor;  and  as  for 
the  roaring  sound  in  the  air — why,  Uncle  Porticle  was 
fast  asleep  in  his  big  arm-chair,  with  his  handkerchief 
spread  over  his  face,  and  I  think  it  more  than  likely 
that  he  had  something  to  do  with  the  sound. 

Dorothy  stared  about  for  a  moment,  and  then, 
suddenly  remembering  the  Caravan,  she  jumped  up  and 
ran  to  the  window.  It  was  snowing  hard,  and  she 
saw  through  the  driving  snowflakes  that  the  High- 
lander and  Sir  Walter  Kosettes  were  standing  on  their 
pedestals,  complacently  watching  the  people  hurrying 


140 


THE   ADMIRAL'S    CARAVAN 


by  with  their  Christmas  parcels ;  and  as  for  the  Ad- 
miral, he  was  standing  on  his  pedestal,  with  a  little 
pile  of  snow  like  a  sugar-loaf  on  top  of  his  hat,  and 
intently  gazing  across  the  street  through  his  spy-glass. 


.ii-j--^:  :.•-<:  -f^^s^t-    •  -.-^._,.v-..-  -;...-.Vv-^v-    • 


THE    END. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


MAR    ? 

fcUG  3      ,353 
NOV  181955 
r#ft  4      1956 
*  4  1958 
DC* 


9  1957 

Apr  1  '60 
Jun  1  '60 


Olbf.  I'; 


MAR  1  0 


52006 


Form  L9-100m-9,'52(A3105)444 


